Skip to main content

Akin Adesina: Nigeria Needs Help With Debt Burden

 Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), says Nigeria needs help from the international community in tackling its debt burden.


Speaking at the Nigeria International Economic Partnership Forum in New York on Thursday, Adesina said financing is critical to solving Nigeria’s development challenges.

“Financing is critical because the debt to GDP ratio of Africa has increased to 70 percent several countries are the risk of high debt distress due to unstable, unsustainable debt levels,” he said.

“Nigeria’s total debt level is N42.84 trillion or $103 billion. External debt levels stand at N16.61 trillion or $40 billion. Ladies and gentlemen, Nigeria needs help to tackle this debt burden.

International partnerships on debt are helping Africa, and Nigeria. The issuance of special drawing rights (SDR) by the International Monetary Fund of $650 billion helped provide liquidity support for countries. However, Africa only received $33 billion out of all of that. Pretty small.

“A call made by the African heads of State for developed economies to rechannel $100 billion of additional SDRs to Africa will go a long way to reduce the debt burden in Nigeria.

“Allocating this SDR, some of this, through the African Development Bank will actually allow us to leverage it four times because we are a leveraging machine. We can deliver more financing to Nigeria and Africa.

Nigeria and other African countries, in my view, therefore need debt relief. They cannot run up the hill carrying a backpack full of sand.”

He said African countries, including Nigeria, need international partnership to tackle climate change.
Adesina said to understand this, all you have to do is take a look at Lake Chad in Nigeria, stating that the continent loses $15 billion as a result of climate change.

"INVESTING IN NIGERIA IS LIKE ROSES WITH THORN"

The AFDB president said while there are roses in Nigeria, “roses come with thorns” and that Nigeria’s huge economic potential also comes with a few thorns.

“Those thorns should not discourage us, they call on us to strengthen international partnerships around Nigeria. Nigeria’s growth will be conditioned on its ability to fix its massive infrastructure deficit.

He said the National Integrated Infrastructure masterplan shows Nigeria would need a total financing of $759 billion up until 2043.

Adesina concluded his intervention by referring to a classic by Michael Jackson, asking Nigeria leaders to look at the man in the mirror, and change where necessary.

“I’m talking about the man in the mirror, I’m asking him also to change his ways. We must change our ways sometimes. To attract greater foreign direct investment to Nigeria, we must fix security, capital does not like to be troubled.

With the right conditions in place, we can confidently say Nigeria is a great investment destination; believe in us, invest in us, invest with us, and you will not be disappointed,” he concluded.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FIVE (5) STEPS OF INVESTMENT PLAN FOR SMALL AND LARGE ENTERPRISES

   A well calculated investment plan is an important tool to help you reach your financial milestones . Investment planning is very important to succeed in your investing journey. Creating a viable investment plan shouldn’t be ignored before you decide to invest your money even though it requires a little more than simply establishing a savings account and buying a few random shares of stocks , it still prepare s you for the normal ups and downs of the market and take advantage of opportunities as th ey arise. Here are few essential steps to guide you invest wisely:         Step One The first step in making an investment plan for the future is to define your present financial situation. You need to figure out how much money you have to invest. You can do this by making a budget to evaluate your monthly disposable income after expenses and emergency savings. This will allow you to determine how much you can reasonably afford to invest. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Diabetes: Neediness, obliviousness sending Nigerians to early grave - Specialists

 There is no refuting that the significant expense of diabetes treatment in Nigeria has prompted an expansion in the awkward and unnecessary passing of people living with the illness as of late. The expense of medications and examination of diabetes have represented an extraordinary test as more than two third of the number of inhabitants in the patients can't bear to purchase the medications and check themselves consistently which most times prompted confusions and, in some cases, passings. This was the situation of Racheal Utom, a 38-year-old woman who lost her passed on appendage to type 2 diabetes and was nearly losing the right a year later, because of her failure to stringently buy her medications and lead her examinations. Mrs Utom, who is engaging with diabetes mellitus, said the specialist told her a month prior that her five toes have been contaminated and right now rotted, yet they were making an effort not to remove the excess appendage. Utom, who uncovered that there w...
Post a Comment
Read more

South-East Gets Lion‘s Share Of NEITI's Recruitment

  The South East zone of the country got the highest share of allocation in the recent controversial recruitment of 70 new staff by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) , Daily Trust investigation reveals. NEITI is a Nigerian government agency with affiliation with the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). An analysis of the distribution indicates that  Abia State got eight slots (the highest), half of which went to Arochukwu LGA where the current Executive Secretary, Ogbonnaya Orji, hails from. A copy of the nominal roll of the agency, exclusively obtained by Daily Trust, also shows  striking semblance in names on the new staff list , which indicate  possible relationships between some of the recruits and NEITI’s management and board members . Sources within and outside the transparency agency had alleged that  some of the basic requirements for employment were not followed in the recruitment process, while ot...
Post a Comment
Read more