Nigeria’s debt profile among lowest in the world — Osinbajo


Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said on Monday that Nigeria’s current debt burden, when compared to the size of the economy, is among the lowest in the world.

The vice president spoke in Lagos at the 50th convocation of the University of Lagos in Akoka.

He delivered UNILAG’s convocation lecture with the theme, “Nigeria Rising: The Path to Prosperity.”

Osinbajo said inflation in Nigeria had stabilised at 11 per cent over the past six months.



He said, “We restored medium-term planning with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan which served as a useful loadstone in improving macroeconomic performance, boosting the real sector of the economy and building infrastructure. The decline in growth, which started at the end of 2014, has been reversed, inflation has stabilised at about 11 per cent over the past six months and our current account was in surplus around 1.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product last year.

“Our foreign reserves can cover at least six months of import of goods and services and despite understandable concerns, our debt burden is only about 22 per cent of the size of our economy, which is one of the lowest ratios in the world.

“We have very clear objectives. As you know, the problem of our country is not the planning or designing of great projects, it is in the actual implementation. We are fortunate that Muhammadu Buhari is not an orator, he is a doer.”

The vice president said the next four years would feature reforms in the aviation and export and import sectors, just as the regulatory agencies would broaden into business facilitators.

The Chairman on the occasion, Chief Arthur Mbanefo, during his address said the lecture was special because it marked the significant homecoming for the vice president.

On his part, the Pro-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Wale Babalakin, said the whole essence of an academic environment was to display a diversity of knowledge, as he insisted that “only academics should be in the environment of academics, not a person that sees the academia as a last resort.”

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, said the institution was growing and by the end of the year UNILAG’s ranking would be higher because the university had done a lot of research with the various grants it received.

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