The Minister of Budget and National Planning Mr Udoma Udoma said Wednesday that the country’s debt profile which rose from N21.12 trillion in 2015 to N24.39 trillion in 2018 is sustainable.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had last week accused the federal government of embarking on “borrowing spree” following remarks by the Director General of Debt Management Office (DMO) Ms Patience Oniha that country’s total public debt stands at N24.39 trillion as at December 31, 2018.
The minister told State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Exective Council (FEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja that there’s no cause for concern because government was doing everything possible to widen it sources of income.
“With regards to our debts, our debts are sustainable. We do have a revenue challenge and we are focusing on that. Once the revenues come up, it will be obvious that we don’t have a debt problem at all. We are working on a number of initiatives to increase our revenues.
“We are looking at initiatives to widening the tax pays. We are looking at initiatives to increase efficiency in collections. We are looking at a single window, which will help to increase efficiency, custom collections. We are looking at many different ways to improve revenues.
“The debts are sustainable, every nation borrows. We are working on increasing our revenues. With regard to the budget, we are happy to see the focus of the National Assembly on the budget and we look forward to whenever it’s passed and the executive receiving it,” he said.
