…  Advocates Demonstration In Govt’s Commitment In  Addressing Nigeria’s Fiscal  Challenges

By Ngozi Onyeakusi—Executive Director, Civil the  Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim Musa  in an effort  aimed at putting to an end to continuous borrowing by the Nigerian Government which is presently putting the nation in a precarious situation, has advocated for a sincere demonstrations in the government’s commitment to addressing Nigeria’s pressing fiscal challenges.

Musa  made call in his statement on Addressing Nigeria’s Fiscal Challenges: A Compresensive Approach delivered at a media presentation organised by CISLAC in partnership with the Christian Aid in Lagos.
According him,  “Nigeria is currently confronting a severe fiscal crisis marked by a consistent decline in federal government revenue over the past half-decade.
Central to this concern, he said was  the government’s overreliance on unsustainable debts which is perpetuated by unrealistic/over bloated budgets, weak revenue mobilization efforts, misplaced
spending priorities and a lack of transparency and accountability in public finance
management.

According to him, the alarming trend is evidenced by substantial shortfalls in revenue, with deficits ranging from 31% to as high as 50% in the years spanning 2018 to 2023.

” Concurrently, Nigeria’s overall debt burden has skyrocketed, reaching a staggering N97.34 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2023 from N87.9 trillion ($114.3 billion) as of June 2023. While
Nigeria’s debt profile continues to grow, and it allocates most of its budget revenue
to debt servicing at the expense of investing in more critical social sectors and
infrastructural development

there has been a wid consensus around”.

“Nigeria faces significant challenges in managing its debt burden amidst competing demands for scarce resources. The government should recognize the urgency of adopting a holistic approach to debt management that balances the need for borrowing with the imperative of debt sustainability.”he said.

Commenting on the Christian Aid partnership with CISLAC, the Head, Christian Aid UK and Nigeria Country Programme, Victor Arokoyo stated that the Christian Aid decided to partner CISLAC in quest to come with last solutions to the Nigeria precarious debt situation.

He regretted that Nigeria debt has risen so high that nation ‘s revenue is now channelled to debt servicing,  if  you look at  Nigeria’s fiscal state, you will see that so much money is being spent on debt services rather than in education, health among others .” You can equally see that we now borrow to pay debt”, he lamented.