A Civil Society Group Social Action has called on Nigerian lawmakers to place a moratorium on further borrowing by the country.
The group also urged the parliament to probe the usage of past borrowings by Nigerian leaders.
Head of National Advocacy,Social Action, Mrs. Vivian Bellonwu-Okafor made the call during a press conference on Nigeria’s debt profile. The briefing was held at the group’s office in Abuja.
Bellonwu-Okafor said “we call on Nigeria’s parliament to show leadership and place moratorium on further borrowing by the country and order immediate investigation into the usage of past borrowings.
“The report of the investigation should be made available to the public”, she said.
She recalled that in 2015, Social Action had “warned that indicators emanating from the economic sectors do not support any further tamping up of debts.”
“Rather than heed this intrinsic Warning, government, making some shallow explanations, predicated on equally irreconcilable calculations and projections, embarked on a borrowing spree that saw the country’s debt that saw the country’s debt shoot up from N12.06 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2015 to N19.6 trillion in June in June 2017.”
She used figures from the Debt Management office to illustrate the dire state of nigeria’s debt profile.
The group added in its demands that”If it becomes absolutely necessary to borrow, details of the project to be executed with the borrowed fund be made public. The precise amount,interest rate and period of repayment should be published… ”
Social Action also demanded, among others, that a “special audit of project implementations be carries out by the Debt Management Office in conjunction with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and Civil Societies and findings made known to the Nigerian public who bear the burden of debt.”
