Unic Press UK: Nigeria is heading towards bankruptcy given the rate at which the current administration has borrowed and is still generating huge liabilities, the country’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo said.
Obasanjo, speaking Friday in Lagos at the first edition of the Nigerian Story organised by the ‘Why I Am Alive’ campaign, said:
“To service this current level of indebtedness, we must commit at least 50% of our foreign earnings, such a situation tells about an impending bankruptcy because no entity can survive while devoting 50% of its revenue to debt servicing. In 2018, total debt servicing cost took over 60 per cent of government revenue. As if this is not bad enough, we are currently seeking to add another $29.6 billion loan to our already overburdened debt portfolio. Our current budget, out of which we are spending 25 per cent to service debt is not our total earnings, a lot of it is also borrowing. We are borrowing to service what we have borrowed and yet we are borrowing more,” the Premium Times, Nigeria, reports.
Nigeria’s Public Debt (Consolidated)
- $63,806,450,000 + ₦12,118,849,450,000 (As at 30 June 2015)
- $83,882,660,000 + ₦25,701,645,740,000 (As at 30 June 2019)
Source: Debt Management Office Nigeria
