The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) is concerned about Nigeria’s national debt, which will expand exponentially between 2013 and 2022 from N10.04 trillion to N46.25 trillion.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) recently disclosed data that revealed Nigeria’s public debt climbed by N6.69 trillion (22.7%) to N46.25 trillion as of the end of 2022, up from N39.56 trillion at the end of 2021. This was revealed by the LCCI.
Finally and most importantly, the LCCI wishes to urge that frequent references should going forward be made to the growth in the stock of national assets following the commendable launch of the restructured Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) as the arrow head of Nigeria’s efforts to optimize national assets by President Muhammadu Buhari on February 1, 2023.
It argued that this would motivate national asset managers, led by MOFI, “to grow our assets and the returns on them as well as motivate our national liability managers, led by DMO, to minimise our liabilities and the costs we incur on them, with equal vigor.”
One-sided updates on liabilities with no updates on assets when such updates were adequately available could well be blamed for some of the downgrades of Nigeria’s debt issuance risk profile and outlook. “