Senate President Ahmad Lawan says borrowing is the only way Nigeria can fund its infrastructural needs.
He told journalists after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential villa on Thursday that the country is “poor”, and increasing tax to raise more revenue to fund infrastructure is not an option at present.
“Nigeria is not rich, given the circumstances we live in, given the challenges we have,” Lawan said.
“Our resources are so low; our revenues are so low, and therefore, the option of not doing anything, just to sit, because we have no money, we shouldn’t go for infrastructure developmen, is not even an option worthy of consideration.
“You cannot keep the economy stagnant. Two, you cannot, in my view and judgement, tax Nigerians further for you to raise the money for infrastructure development. Other countries do that, but we have serious situations across the country, so you cannot put taxes on people.
“The other option is public-private partnership. You need to create the environment to attract investors to come into our country; because of the security challenges we face today, not many investors would like to come to Nigeria.
“In fact, even those inside Nigeria may not like to invest properly in this sector of infrastructure development.
“So, the only option left is for us to borrow, but we have to borrow responsibly, utilise prudently and economically, and ensure that the projects are self-sustaining so that they can pay back the loans, so that the Nigerian economy will benefit from the implementation of such infrastructure development.”
Lawan said the national assembly will be “stiff” with the executive, if the loan requests approved by the lawmakers are mismanaged.
