May 19, 2021
By Chesa Chesa
President Muhammadu Buhari has called on European countries and global financial institutions to consider reducing devastating effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on African economies by restructuring debt portfolios, opting for complete reliefs, and releasing vaccines to the continent, which is still behind in protecting majority of its citizens.
The President, who spoke Tuesday at the Financing Africa Summit held at Grande Palais Ephemere with the theme: “External Financing and debt Treatment”, holding in Paris, France, said the fall in commodity prices as Covid-19 took a toll on the global economy further slowed growth in some countries and strained health facilities.
Buhari In France: Seeks Debt Relief, More Vaccines For African Countries
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Buhari seeks debt relief for African countries
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Vanessa Obioha writes that the rising debt profile of Nigeria brings a scrutiny on President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which is arguably, the only government that has borrowed more than any in the new democratic dispensation and perhaps the only administration that has recorded two economic recessions
Nigeria’s economy, like most nations in the world, contracted due to the unprecedented Coronavirus pandemic last year. The global crash in oil prices forced the country to suspend the external commercial borrowing as indicated by the Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed. Ninety per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings and about 60 per cent of its total revenue are from the oil sector.
By Obinna Chima
Nigeria presently lags behind its peers in Africa in terms of public expenditure-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio, the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze, has said.
Compared with an African average of about 22 per cent, Nigeria’s public expenditure-to-GDP ratio is at 12 per cent, he added.
Akabueze, in a presentation titled: “Key Objectives and Expected Impact of the FGN 2021 Budget,” he delivered at KPMG’s Tax Breakfast seminar, a copy of which was obtained by THISDAY, yesterday, said the size of the federal, states and local governments’ budgets relative to the needs of the three tiers of government were too small, compared with their levels of expenditures.