In the same period, the country paid a total of $1.07 billion (about N326.69 billion) to service foreign loans obtained by both the federal and state governments. The recent growth in the external debt component reflects the Federal Government’s move to take more foreign loans as against the acquisition of costlier internal loans. In a painful irony, the National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND) is under investigation over its N17 billion debt. The data, however, showed that total loans and advances by the banks decreased within the period before rising again. While monetary policies can be deployed to manage cases of bad loans and debt, the Federal Government should prioritise its needs on foreign and domestic loans on projects.

Source: The Guardian December 15, 2017 05:15 UTC