Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, has said that country’s $83 billion debt is being misrepresented by scare mongers.
Mohammed said in Lagos on Monday that Nigeria was not in serious debt trouble as being circulated.
He explained that the nation is within a reasonable debt ratio to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and that the debt was an accumulation of successive governments’ activities, adding that the economic state of the country was good.
He noted that the Nigerian economy in 2019 performed better than in 2018 with improvements in the oil and non-oil sectors.
According to him, some achievements were recorded in the areas of anti-corruption war and security and that the corruption fight was largely successful, while security, especially the insurgency in the North East has been tackled properly.
He, however, admitted that there were still pockets of attacks in the region, adding that the government was on top of the situation.
The minister also told journalists that the government has made progress in providing food for the people and that Nigeria was close to food self-sufficiency.
He disclosed that the continued closure of the nation’s land borders has helped local food production and curbed crime and violent activities.
Mohammed noted that another benefit of the border closure is the decline in the rate of illegal migration into the country.
MM/GIK/APA