Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed has revealed that borrowing of Nigeria have been practical, sustainable and guided by its Debt Management Strategy, adding that the debt is 33% of the GDP, which is still the lowest on the African Continent.
Ahmed who made this known in her presentation at the 6th Edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015 – 2023) in Abuja on Thursday, proceeded to say Nigeria do not need to restructure her debt because debt management is on the first line charge and the country has never defaulted.
On States, the Finance Minister said President Muhammadu Buhari has been uniquely generous in his financial support to all States. “A total of N5.03 trillion plus an additional US$3.4 billion has been released to states by the Federal Government over the life of this administration.
“While the support covers the 13% Derivation Refund to Oil Producing States, refund for Construction of Federal Roads, Ecological Support, Support from the Development of Natural Resources Fund, Paris Club refunds, Support from Stabilisation Fund, COVID intervention amongst others”.
Ahmed stated that her Ministry ensured full implementation of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) by all MDAs, including Educational and Security Agencies. “A total of 723 MDAs has been enrolled into the IPPIS with an outstanding 5 MDAs.
“In respect of State Finances and Investment, the Ministry also facilitated the implementation of various Federal Government Intervention Schemes to Sub- nationals and facilitated Federal
Government’s Intervention facilities for sectoral development in the States such as: the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACs), Health Care Support Facility, Differentiated Cash Reserve Requirement (DCRR) Facility and Several Bonds Issuance Programme”.
She added that the Ministry collaborated with relevant stakeholders in getting Mr. President to sign an Executive Order (Eo1) on the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), to achieve reduction of the documentation requirements from 10 to 7 for exports and 14 to 8 for import activities.
“We have optimized fiscal incentives to boost productivity in critical sectors, including Agriculture, Solid Minerals and Manufacturing. The Federal Government has disbursed N528,384,778,445.70 billion and supported a total of 233,974 MSMEs.
In collaboration with AMCON, Ahmed said the Ministry was able to resolve a significant part of Eligible Bank Assets (EBA) disposable and recoveries of Non-Performing Loans.
Also, she said further that the Ministry coordinates and aligns the operations of Banking and Financial Institutions by establishing financial relations among the Federal, States and Local Govts as well as parastatals and government owned companies.
“Restructuring of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), which manages GOEs and government- linked companies (GLCs) to drive value creation from different asset classes or investments of the FGN. MOFI’s current portfolio consists of 130 corporate entities valued at about N19 trillion.
“The goal in the next 10 years is to grow MOFI’s Assets Under Management (AUM) to about NGN 34 trillion and drive a minimum annualized average return of 15%”.
The Minister revealed further that the Federal Government launched the Road Infrastructure Development And Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme (RITCS) in 2019 to leverage private sector capital and expertise to construct, repair and maintain critical road infrastructure in key economic corridors and industrial clusters.
“The President has approved 33 Road Projects, covering a total length of 1,564.95 km as of 2021. About N78.7 billion (about US$190 million) in tax credits have been issued thus far. To support Domestic Revenue Mobilisation efforts, the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRGI) was introduced in January 2019.
“The non-oil revenue share of total FGN revenues to fund the budget increased from 30% to 73%. In particular, revenues collected by FIRS grew from N6 trillion for the 2021 fiscal year to N10 trillion from
January to September 2022. The Ministry approved for Nigeria Export- Import (NEXIM) Bank to increase its share capital from N121 billion to N500 billion over the next five (5) years”, she said.
Earlier, in his remarks, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed boasted that no govt, since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999, has done more than the Buhari Administration in supporting states with all sorts of financial interventions.
He recalled when the Administration assumed office in 2015, added that at least 27 states could not pay salaries. “Imagine what would have happened if Mr. President had not offered a helping hand, without discrimination, to the states? If not for Mr. President, most of these states would have been plunged into serious socio-economic crisis,
with dire consequences for the country”, Alhaji Mohammed said.
The Minister noted that the support to the states came at a time when national resources had dwindled drastically, and also at a time of competing needs in many areas, including infrastructure, security, global pandemic, others.