Governor Nasir El-Rufai has raised an alarm over Nigeria’s debt which according to him is getting out of control.
The Kaduna State Governor who spoke at a virtual event organised by World Bank Nigeria stated that the domestic debt was getting to its debt ceiling as far as liquidity was concerned and there’s no need to pretend that Nigeria’s debt-to-gross Domestic Product ratio was still low.
He said “You can’t fund security more than you are doing now unless you reduce spending on other ministries, departments and agencies. The extensive way in which the Central Bank is into everything, I think, has to be addressed and dealt with. And we must look at our domestic debt management and do something about it. It is getting out of control and we are getting to our debt ceiling as far as liquidity is concerned. And to pretend that our debt-to-GDP ratio is still low, I think is not the answer to the question. It is a travesty that in Nigeria, as at 2018, just about 20 people in the whole country paid more than N20m in income tax. It is a travesty and something should be done. I think that rich Nigerians don’t pay taxes. They live in huge houses, drive expensive cars but when you see their tax return, you realise that the civil servants on grade level 12 pay more income tax than they do.”