The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, could not make available the current debt profile of the country when asked to do so in one of the plenary sessions at the ongoing 22nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja.
The minister promised to make the figure available on a future date as he could not give the exact figure on the spot.
This development was received with disappointment by some attendees at the summit.
But, the minister, who later provided the figure while speaking after the session, said the figure did not come to mind when it was demanded from him.
Continuing, he said the government was already implementing policies aimed at getting the economy out of the current recession.
He listed measures being taken to achieve that as“taking actions to reduce the disruptions (to oil production activities) in the Niger Delta; fast tracking measures to raise funding from foreign loans and other sources to fund the 2016 capital budget; and targeting capital releases to projects with impact on employment, among others.”
He said even after getting out of the recession, the country would continue with the implementation of its Strategic Implementation Plan, which was launched by the current administration at the time the 2016 budget was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari. “The plan will restructure our economy onto the path of sustainable growth,” he stressed.
