Rising domestic debt, wage bill worry FG

THE Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has expressed concern about the rising domestic debt which stands at N5.96 trillion, as the Federal Government planned to spend N1.658 trillion on salary and wages in 2012.Dr Okonjo-Iweala, speaking on Monday at the 2012 budget breakdown in Abuja, underscored the debilitating effect the rising domestic debt could have on the Nigerian banking sector, adding that government was doing all within its power to control the mounting local debt.Disclosing that the external debt stock also stood at $5.9 billion, the coordinating minister said the Federal Government had positioned N559.6 billion for domestic and foreign debt service in the 2012 budget.She said the government was looking at all the indices to ensure that the debt did not go out of hand.Dr Okonjo-Iweala, who disclosed that the debt service to revenue was 19 per cent against the generally accepted norm of about 30 per cent, added that the position for domestic borrowing had now gone down to N744 billion, compared to N862 billion in 2011 budget.Dr Okonjo-Iweala said the total forecast revenue for the federal budget is N3.5 trillion, with an oil component of N1.9 trillion and a non-oil component of N1.8 trillion.She dismissed the insinuation that the Nigerian economy was not growing, adding that on the contrary, the economy was sound, on the right track and had the potential to bring in robust performance.Also speaking, the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Dr Bright Okogu, said the mono-cultural nature of the Nigerian economy exposed it to grave danger, when accruals from crude oil were not being saved.
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