Reduce External Borrowing, Lawan Begs Buhari

President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to reduce borrowing from external lending houses to fund the country’s annual budgets.

Lawan said the administration should, instead, focus on blocking financial leakages and avoiding wastage in all tiers of government. Lawan declared these on Monday in Abuja in a chat with newsmen after a close-door meeting with Buhari at the State House.

The senate president said his discussion with Buhari centred on the need to take steps to increase revenue generation by government agencies and reduce dependence on external loans to fund the budget.

He stated, “I had discussions with the president on some other governance issues that have to do with making the revenues in the country, especially for government at the federal and the state levels, and even local governments, even more.

“There are so many agencies of government that are not remitting their internally generated revenues and this is something that we have to address as quickly as possible, because we need to find a way of reducing the borrowing that we do.

“So, if there are areas that we can now get revenues that will help us reduce the amount of borrowing, then, so be it. And this is something that we all agreed with Mr. President, that we should continue to look at those areas that we need to improve on revenue generation and collection.

“Thank God, we are on the same page with Mr. President on all these issues, and for us, it is a renewal of our commitment to Nigerians and to the administration, that in the National Assembly, our focus is Nigeria, our priority is Nigeria. We have no personal interest in anything. What will make Nigeria better is what concerns us. At the end of the day, we will have a date with history and want to be on the right side of history.”