Nigeria risks losing foreign assets to reckless borrowing, CSOs warn

Written by on January 31, 2023

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have raised concern over Nigeria’s rising debt profile, describing it as a “trap” worsening the country’s crisis-ridden economy and costing the nation foreign assets.

The CSOs, consisting Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Christian Aid, in partnership with Transparency International (TI), noted that Nigeria is currently in a debt crisis, with a fiscal deficit well above the statutory threshold of three per cent, an increasingly unsustainable debt profile, and a rising debt servicing that has been worsened by growing interest rates, among others.

Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja, yesterday, Guardian reports that  Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, lamented that the National Assembly has failed in its constitutional duty of checkmating the excesses of the executive arm of government and is, therefore, largely to blame for the current debt crisis.

He said due to the “rubber stamp” attitude of legislators who sign or approve loans that the executive has been taking in the last few years without fully grasping its implication to the economy and generations yet to come, Nigeria is now in a debt trap, as government keeps taking loans from private creditors, hence, deepening the debt crisis and increasing human cost.


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