We’re Unhappy Over FG’s Plan To Borrow Fresh N5.62 Trillion — Reps

The House of Representatives has expressed displeasure over the plan by the federal government to borrow N5.62 trillion to finance deficit in the 2022 budget, while these agencies starve the government of fund.

It criticised some government agencies that conceal their revenues, thereby denying the Federal Government the fund for budgeting.

Chairman, House Committee on Finance, James Faleke, made this known, Thursday, at the public hearing on the 2022/2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF FSP) in Abuja.

“We are not happy the way Nigeria is borrowing N5.62 trillion and we have some fund somewhere lying fallow without being used. For God’s sake, let us build this country together for the sake of us all,” he said.

HOWEVER, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, said the Federal Government raised N669 billion from the Nigerian capital market through issuance of Sukuk bonds.

Ahmed said this, Thursday, at the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) 2021 national workshop. At the workshop themed ‘Leveraging the Financial Markets to Achieve Double-Digit Economic Growth for Nigeria’, the minister said the Federal Government, through the Debt Management Office (DMO), raised N669 billion from the capital market between 2018 and 2020 to construct and rehabilitate more than 44 roads across the six geo-political zones of the country.

Guardian