billion in 2005 before the debt relief of 2006. Now the country has an
external debt at $6.67 billion, (about N1.035 trillion), Coordinating
Ministerfor the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday, said.
The Minister however said that the clarification became necessary in
view of the various figures being quoted in the debate over the
nation's indebtedness.
"As at now, our external indebtedness is as low as $6.67 billion or
about 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product, GDP," Okonjo-Iweala said.
According to her, "the external debt is typically owed to foreign
creditors such as multilateral agencies [like theAfrica Development
Bank, World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank],as well as other
bilateral sources [including the China Exim Bank, the French
Development Bank or the Japanese Aid Agency], or to private creditors
such as investors in our Eurobonds."
The Minister said that most external loans were contracted on
concessional terms.
"Many of the multilateral loans are at zero interests, 40 years
maturity, and10 years grace. Others are at less than three percent
rate of interest."
Okonjo-Iweala assured that the Federal Government would continue to
closely monitor the nation's debt stock to keep it low.
"We shall never be complacent aboutour national debt. We need to be
constantly vigilant to limit the amount of debt and create room for
the private sector instead to borrow. As such, we need to stay focused
on three main priorities," she said.
"We should continue to monitor our external borrowing and ensure that
we do not slip back to our high indebtedness prior to the debt relief
programme. As I mentioned earlier, the External Borrowing Plan, helps
toaddress this concern by ensuring that we always have a
comprehensive, transparent view of our foreign borrowing.
"We should closely continue to monitor and limit our domestic debt,
and ensure that it stays within a prudent and conservative range. We
should pay off debt that is due to theextent of our ability. We should
also continue to closely monitor borrowing by states to ensure that
the debt burdens of our state governments remain within manageable
levels and that borrowings are applied to specific projects that yield
results for citizens of the state.
"In that regard, we enjoin banks andother lenders to be careful and
prudent when lending to ensure thatthis is done within the existing
rules,regulations and guidelines."
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