The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Amina
Mohammed, has stated that two-time Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, spent
years to get Nigeria out of debt, but the country is now back to worrying
levels of debt.
Speaking at the International Monetary (IMF) and the UN
working together conversation on Tuesday, the former minister of environment in
Nigeria, expressed her worry on the rising level of debt in Nigeria and the
rest of Africa.
She said the UN and IMF must have better conversations on
the demands of a growing economy, seeking ways to make growth better and
inclusive.
“Public resources are always going to be important, and so
is ODA and the private sector. But I think we still haven’t yet got quite the
solution and I hope that the work that we do together will open up that space
to think more on how to leverage that,” she said.
“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.”
In the 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.
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.
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