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Borrowing: World Bank, FG on same page

Kemi-Adeosun

Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun

The World Bank is neither in disagreement with the Federal Government nor the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on the need for Nigeria to borrow to finance infrastructure development, the World Bank has clarified.

A source at the World Bank Country Office in Abuja, in a reaction to a story published on Tuesday, titled, ‘W’Bank disagree with Adeosun on borrowing’, clarified that both the Federal Government and the Bank agreed on the need to rebalance the country’s debt portfolio because of high interest rate of domestic debt.

The source said, “It is the high interest rate of domestic borrowing that has raised concern on the sustainability of Nigeria’s borrowing given the dwindling of revenues in recent times. Also, extensive domestic borrowing by Government crowds out credit to the private sector.

“It is also for the same reason that the Federal Government through the Debt Management Office came up with the Debt Management Strategy (2016 – 2019) which outlined the country’s plan to rebalance its debt portfolio in favour of foreign borrowing which attracts lower interest rate.”

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