April 22, 2019 
The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, says while government borrows to deliver on its promises, it was also mindful of rising debt burden, which eats up about 25 per cent of the country’s annual earnings.
Mrs Ahmed said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the side-line of the just concluded IMF/World Bank meetings, which took place in Washington DC from April 9 to 14.
Nigeria currently has an external debt stock of about 24.27 billion dollars as of December 31, 2018.
Euro bonds, loans from World Bank Group, China and Africa Development Bank Group make up over 80 per cent of the country’s debt stock.
Mrs Ahmed insisted that in spite of warnings by the IMF and World Bank, the country was not in any way near a debt crisis.
“The World Bank and IMF are cautioning us on the rate at which we are borrowing.
“They are also cautioning us on the need to build fiscal buffers because the global economy is going to be facing some risks and we agree with that.
“We are very mindful of the level of our borrowings. Our borrowing is very much within fiscal limits right now.
The correspondent also raised concerns about whether the conditions for the loans were favourable to the overall interest of Nigeria.
Mrs Ahmed responded saying: “To borrow, we go through several processes of assessments as well as negotiations.
“We make sure we get the best possible terms and whether we are borrowing from financial institutions or in Europe or China or anywhere else, we try to get the best rates of borrowing.
“So far, the conditions we’ve got are very good ones,’’ she said.
– NAN
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