MORE facts emerged on Tuesday on why the Federal Government decided to review its borrowing plan upward from $7.9bn to $9.3bn.
The increased borrowing, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had said would be spent on the agricultural , housing, educational , health and transport sectors.Investigations on Tuesday showed that the external borrowing plan was being reviewed in order to further discourage domestic borrowing from the private sector.
A top Presidency source said the poor state of infrastructure in the country forced the government to borrow.
“It is not possible not to borrow because we need funds to address infrastructure deficit as our capital budget won’t be enough to address the huge infrastructure gap,” the source said.
The source, who spoke with our correspondent on Tuesday, said it was safer to borrow from external than domestic source, adding that the country would be losing huge funds in terms of lost investment opportunities if it refuses to take advantage of the concessionary lending programmes of international finance institutions.
via Punch
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