Business
Nigeria’s Debt Service ratio falls to 45%
Kemi Adeosun, Finance Minister
Nigeria has made significant improvement in its debt-service-to-revenue ratio as it dropped from 66 per cent to 45 per cent.
This is coming on the back of improved revenue mobilisation from both domestic and foreign sources.
The government has been aggressively driving its tax reform with the introduction of Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).
It plans to raise $1 billion through VAIDS but it has been able to rake in $110 million since the programme was launched in June.
Experts have been concerned over the large chunk of revenue the country spends in servicing its debts, which grew 21 per cent to N19.64 trillion in June.
The decline will now see to the deployment of more funds to the areas of development needs, while work is ongoing to tame high cost of short term domestic debts.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun assures of continued improvement from now onward as revenue initiatives begin to deliver more.
The government has disclosed that it would borrow $5.5 billion through eurobond to finance the 2017 budget and restructure its domestic debts.