Flingpord

  UNREMITTINGLY, global agencies continue to warn Nigeria of the dangers of its mounting debt; and just as unrepentantly, the government persists on a two-track trajectory of acquiring more debt, and simultaneously downplaying the peril. Two alerts in succession by the World Bank, one that debt servicing would continue to increase in the next five years and balloon to 160 per cent in 2027, and another that high repayment cost in 2023 could plunge the country into crisis, demand a change in strategy by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). The global bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, noted last week that the country’s interest payment to revenue ratio would continue to rise steadily. He said this would sustain the current stagnation and could send the economy spiralling to the bottom. Moreover, in a presentation, the World Bank’s Lead Economist for Nigeria, Alex Sienaert, projected debt servicing spending to rise from 100.2 per cent in 2022 to ...