So another $6.1 billion loan and of course the Senate, under Ahmed Lawan, is expected approve; Nigeria has limited options. On Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari asked the Senate to approve a new external loan of $6.1 billion for the Federal Government to finance the 2021 budget deficit.
When we wrote here that Nigeria would need a loan to finance the 2021 national budget, many threw digital bombs. My thesis was clear: if the government is unable to mop unclaimed dividends and balances on dormant bank accounts, the only remaining option is to call the lenders. Why? There is no other option because the pension funds are not even there anymore. Like I noted this morning to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), expecting the government to help you is an illusion because it is the government which needs help!
What is happening in Kaduna is a microcosm of Nigeria: about 100k workers consume 96% of FAAC allocation to the state with the other 8.9 million citizens relying on 4%. While the governor has chosen to fire people (not optimal) instead of pushing for productivity indexable public service which is tied to internal GDP growth, Nigeria has a date ahead.
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The prediction is clear: by 2023 December, more than 70% of Nigeria’s budget could go into serving debts! Do not think that it is impossible when you see that our borrowing is NOT for production but largely for consumption and recurrent expenditure.
President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking to borrow another $6.1billion from bilateral and multilateral organisations to fund the deficit in the 2021 budget.
The president, in a letter to both chambers of the National Assembly on Tuesday, asked for their approval to take the fresh loan.
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, read the letter from the president during the plenary.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, read the letter during the plenary session of the upper legislative chamber on Tuesday.
Loans. Loans. More requests on the way! A nation of loans. Expect this communique to become more vocal.
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We talk a lot in this country, and at the same time a confused set people. What is our national aspiration? Nobody knows, but we keep sleeping and waking up, perhaps in the hope that the likes of Buhari would transform the land; no chance.
The Labour guys are protesting in Kaduna, why? Government should not sack workers, because times are hard! You now wonder how keeping them would improve hard times, we are never serious as a people.
How do politicians score themselves? By building physical infrastructures, they are what people see, so it doesn’t matter whether those things can generate revenues or not; just borrow and build them. And your name will go down as the best performing leader!
We pretend as if we have developed the right metric to measure development, unfortunately we haven’t, and since we lack courage to sack people and restructure the system, the only option is to borrow to maintain the irredeemable.
What can salvage the situation? Markets! By creating companies in their thousands, labour unions won’t be squabbling with governments, but with private sector employers, where productivity counts, because you must earn every kobo you take home.
Once people begin to earn their pay here, we will grow some sense.