Amina Mohammed |
Amina Mohammed, the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations (UN),
says Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, two-time minister of finance, spent years to
get Nigeria out of debt.
She, however, said the country was now back to worrying levels of debt.
A video published by the International Monetary Fund, (IMF) on
Wednesday shows Mohammed, the immediate past minister of environment in
Nigeria, expressing her worry on the rising level of debt in Nigeria and
the rest of Africa.
While speaking at the UN working together conversation with Christine
Lagarde, the Managing Director of the IMF, Mohammed had agreed with
Lagarde that Okonjo-Iweala was very influential in the debt relief
Nigeria secured in 2006.
She also said the UN and IMF must have better conversations on the
demands of a growing economy, seeking ways to make growth better and
inclusive.
“As I was coming up from New York, some of the concerns that came up
from the meeting we had in China just recently and reports that we have;
the debt issues are really big, I mean, having experienced what it was
for Ngozi (Okonjo-Iweala) to get debt relief.
“It took her a few years to convince people, and we are now back
again in my country, with a level of debt that is worrying, but its
happening all over. Africa, is that the way we want to go?
“I think we really need to sit down and have a better conversation
about all the asks of a growing economy; that needs to be inclusive, it
needs to succeed, because stability is needed more than ever today,
across our countries and where we are working.”
Before 2005, Nigeria had an external debt stock of $36 billion, which
had been carried over from the military years, dating back to 1985.
In October 2005, with Okonjo-Iweala as finance minister, Nigeria and
the Paris Club announced a final agreement for debt relief worth $18
billion and an overall reduction of Nigeria’s external debt stock by $30
billion.
The deal was completed on April 21, 2006, when Nigeria made its final
payment and its books were cleared of any Paris Club debt, bringing
Nigeria’s external debt profile to just $3 billion while domestic debt
was only about N1 trillion.
As at June 30, 2018, Nigeria’s total debt profile, according to the
Debt Management Office (DMO) had risen to $73.21 billion or N22.38
trillion.
-Daily Post
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