In order to reduce borrowing, Senate President Ahmad Lawan has indicated that the federal government should look into new ways of funding its initiatives.
This was said by Lawan during a joint session of the national assembly on Thursday, during which President Muhammadu Buhari presented his budget plan for 2022.
Ministers, divisions, and agencies (MDAs) have the ability to contribute more to the federation account, according to the Senate president.
“Mr President, we understand that due to paucity of revenue, the federal government has to resort to raising funds from foreign and domestic sources to provide infrastructure across the country,” he said.
“That is why the national assembly approved the requests for borrowing. The commitment of the federal government in providing infrastructure across the country means that the funds must be raised one way or the other.
“Government should also explore other sources of funding for its projects in order to reduce borrowing.”
Lawan believes the national assembly’s recent efforts in partnership with the executive branch to guarantee revenue is collected from revenue-generating agencies are a step in the right direction.
“Equally important is the recent position taken by the legislature and the executive to insist on zero allocation for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that fail to remit/upload their revenues for the 2022 appropriation,” he said.
“This saw an increase in the contribution of the MDAs by over N400 billion. It is my view that MDAs can contribute to the federation account much more than that.
“This policy should be expanded and deepened to cover more MDAs.”
As of the second quarter of 2021, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said Nigeria’s total public debt (federal and state governments) has risen to N35.46 trillion.
