BY Henry Umoru
ABUJA — CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Ehigie Edobor Uzamere (ACN, Edo South) disclosed, yesterday, that Nigeria’s Foreign and Domestic debts stand at a total of US $39.72 billion (N6.02 trillion) which is 20.29 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

Speaking at the inauguration of his Committee by Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Uzamere said at the advent of civilian rule, the country’s external debt was well over US$326 billion, but the nation’s current debt is now US$5.398 billion as external which translates to 2.76 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product, GDP, while our Domestic Debt is N5.210 trillion representing 17.53 per cent.

According to Uzamere, “this amount is unsettling and called for concern,” adding that the total debt of N6.02 trillion is more than the Federal Government’s annual budget.

He stressed the “dire need for the executive to focus more on borrowing for projects with self-repaying capacity and job generation rather than borrowing to finance gap in budgets that are largely recurrent.”

Uzamere explained that with the 20.29 per cent of GDP that the total debt constitutes in Nigeria’s economy compared to “global limit of 40 per cent, the country is on safe ground,” but noted that “more hard work and a serious approach” was needed “to translate our debt into asset to accelerate our infrastructural development and boost the economy.”

He was, however, not comfortable with the Debt Sustainability Analysis, DSA, supplied by the Debt Management Bureau, adding: “There are other Debt Sustainability Indices, DSIs, that are more realistic and revealing than the Debt/GDP ratio.

“Do we have the capacity to repay this money considering our yearly revenue profile? What is the future value of the total debt in 10 years’ time?”

The Senator who promised that his Committee would engage the executive to generate good quality data for its DSA, said: “Needless to say that proper DSA reveals a country’s susceptibility to debt distress; the committee will align its energy with the executive to review the country’s debt policy and thereto, redefine its debt strategy.”

He, however, enjoined the government to embrace the Public Private Partnership, PPP, through adequate legal framework to safeguard workability of the scheme as it was a sure way to hasten the provision of infrastructure with less financial burden to the government.

“Unfortunately, due to inadequate information the provision for PPP in the Debt Management Office (amendment) Bill was rejected”, bemoaned, “National Assembly needs to revisit this issue and many others that were rejected in the Bill so that we will be seen as giving the necessary backing to effective debt management.

“It is our firm belief that no matter how effective our debt management is, without fiscal discipline, no meaningful success can be achieved; I therefore call on all tiers of government to be prudent, accountable and transparent in the management of our lean finances.

‘’The Committee will do everything within its mandate to encourage institutional capacity; we will therefore initiate advocacy campaign for States to establish and develop their Debt Management Departments; we are mindful of the fact that a slack in one state alone can affect the entire country; after all, we have only one economy.

Inaugurating the Committee, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu berated past regimes (the military) for borrowing on account of the country and abandoning the projects for which the loans were taken.