“Nigeria will continue to borrow,” finance minister says, two days after warning against debt

Two days after the finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, said the federal government must move away from debt in funding future budgets, she clarified her statement saying Nigeria has no choice but to continue to borrow in other to implement the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP.

Speaking at the quarterly presidential business forum in Abuja, Mrs. Adeosun said Nigeria needs to generate more money to fund its budget.

“We need to mobilise additional revenue to fund our budget,” she said.

“We have got to get our budget bigger and to do that we cannot borrow anymore. We simply have to generate more revenue, we have to plug the leakages, we have to improve tax collection so that we can manage our borrowing.”

However, in a statement signed by the Director of Information, Federal Ministry of Finance, Salisu Dambatta, on Thursday, Mrs. Adeosun said Nigeria will continue to borrow to fund its budget.

“Nigeria will continue to borrow. Nothing has changed,” her spokesperson quoted her as saying.