The Federal Government has disclosed China is obliging to lend Nigeria more money and invest in the country’s infrastructure.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, who revealed this while uttering on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, also sai Nigeria was not among the critically indebted countries, hence it was not discussing debt forgiveness with its major lender, China.
According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s external debt stock as of March 2024 was N56trn ($42bn) while domestic debt stood at N65trn ($46.29).
China is one of Nigeria’s pinnacle lenders.
At the recent 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, President Bola Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, pushed for reform of the international financial scheme to comprise “comprehensive debt relief measures, to enable sustainable financing for development”.
This also trended:
However, when asked if Nigeria was in utters with China for debt relief considering that President Tinubu met with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping recently, the minister stated that was not the case.
He stated China was even obliging to lend Nigeria more money and invest more in the country’s economy.
Tuggar said, “No, that is not what we are discussing with China. And when it arrives to the issue of debt, look at the debt-to-GDP ratio of Nigeria, we are not even among the critically indebted nations.
“When you verbalize about the debt of a developing country, Nigeria is not in that sort of insecure situation.
“As a matter of fact, China is masterminded to lend more, China is coordinated to invest more in Nigeria in terms of infrastructure development and other things,” he said.
He disclosed Nigeria made presentations at the UN, not only for self-interest, adding that Nigeria also utters for Africa, the global South, and the developing countries.
Category: World-News
Tag: China willing to lend Nigeria more money FG The Round Table
Written by Author
Published 9/30/2024