Safiu Kehinde
Former Statistician General of the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, Yemi Kale, has revealed that the perceived excessiveness of Nigeria’s debt profile is caused by poor repayment plan.
Yemi had, in a statement released on his Twitter handle, identified two issues surrounding Nigeria’s debt while faulting poor revenue generation for the exorbitant debt profile.
According to him, issues surrounding Nigeria’s debt include what they are used for and ability to repay.
His words; “Debt has two issues. What it is being used for & ability to repay.
“Debt/GDP represents capacity to repay & is 6-8-%, so there is revenue in the system to repay. But Debt/Rev which is ability to repay is poor at about 80% so not enough revenue is being retrieved from the system.
“If ability is enhanced through revenue reforms so that ability is raised towards capacity then the conversation about our size of debt disappears. Nigerian debt is only perceived to be too much because ability to pay is poor despite an arguably comfortable capacity to do so.” He tweeted.
The ex-NBS boss, however, suggested ways at which the issues can be addressed- though they have shortcomings attached.
According to him, the country can curtail debt in the presence of poor revenues, but this will slowdown development rate.
His also suggested continuous borrowing while focusing on revenue reforms to repay debt.
Lastly, he suggested bringing a halt to borrowing and rather generate revenue first.
This, still according to him will also slows development.