Rising debts in the public and private
sectors have become a source of worry to the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
which described the development as anti-growth.
The IMF Assistant Director and Head of Fiscal
Policy and Surveillance, Catherine Pattillo at the ongoing IMF/World Bank
yearly meetings in Washington DC, expressed concern that notwithstanding the
recession challenges for Nigeria, the rising level of public debt needs to be
checked.
According to Pattillo, while the debt profile
is rising alongside inflation, it is getting more complicated with the rise in
the cost of the servicing, which is about 45 per cent of the country’s
estimated revenue.
She advised that increase in non-oil revenue
as oil crisis persists is the way forward, while government minimises subsidies
related to fuel, as well as effective public service reforms.
But, Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has
accused developed countries and multilateral institutions of under-developing
Nigeria.Adeosun said while the country is looking for funds for development
projects, Nigeria has hundreds of millions of dollars in Britain, Switzerland
and the United States.
“They are significant sums. I think in
Switzerland, we have $321 million, which has been there for 17 years with no
interest, yet, we are borrowing in billions, and that is just from one person
that looted the treasury,” she lamented.
Meanwhile, Nigeria and other emerging market economies
are in for a fiscal boost as the World Bank’s private investment arm-
International Finance Corporation (IFC) unveiled a $5 billion Infrastructure
Investments in Emerging Markets.
The scheme, described as innovative, aims to
raise $5 billion from global institutional investors to modernise
infrastructure in emerging markets for the next five years.
Specifically, it is targeted at opening up a
new stream of capital flows to improve power, water, transportation, and
telecommunications systems in developing countries.
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