The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, said that the borrowings of the Federal Government would be used to fund critical infrastructure projects across the country.
He said this during a meeting with the Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Affairs of the Trade and Policy Department at the French Treasury, Mr. Guillaume Chabert, in Abuja.
A statement from his Media Adviser, Mr. Akpandem James, quoted the minister to have explained that the effect of investing in infrastructure was enormous and was the surest way of setting the country on the path of growth and sustainable development.
He noted that the government was working on a national economic recovery and growth plan, which would move the country out of recession and set it on a growth path.
“To get out of economic recession, we will need to harness resources by plugging revenue leakages and by looking at new revenue sources in order to generate the resources required to spend our way out of recession, particularly focused on infrastructure,” Udoma said.
He explained that while the government was exploring other means of generating revenue internally, it had to borrow, part of which had to be sourced internationally from sources that could give concessionary terms, like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The minister said, “We know we need to look at upgrading our oil revenue in order to generate the resources to use to spend our way out of dependence on oil; which means we have to focus our attention on reducing the disruptions in the Niger Delta so that we can get our production back to a minimum of 2.2 million barrels per day. That is the fastest way to generate resources.
“We want to make sure that the growth will be an inclusive one. In the past, we used to have growth that was not inclusive.
“We were growing, but poverty was increasing. We want to make sure that the growth is inclusive. One of the ways is to give preference to labour-intensive activities to create jobs, which is the fastest way to reduce poverty. In addition to that, we will continue with our social intervention projects.”
