Borrowing to finance budget is not new- Senator Barau

By Abdul Isah. The Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriations, Barau Jibrin has defended Federal Government’s plan to fund a considerable part of the country’s 2022 budget by borrowing close to 6 trillion naira from external sources.

Solacebase reports that the Senator representing Kano North said that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on the world’s economy and certainly, Nigeria is not an exemption, just as he further explained that despite the economic downturn, the country expects to get a projected 10 trillion naira from internal revenue sources.

Senator Barau Jibrin made his position known in a chat with a group of journalists on Saturday.

This is coming after president Muhammadu Buhari had submitted the appropriation bill to the National Assembly for consideration on Thursday.

The budget has however, generated a lot of talking points and controversy as Nigerians continue to fret over the country’s increasing debt burden without any remedy in sight anytime soon.

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According to the ranking lawmaker, “at this point in time, with the economic situation of the country, borrowing becomes necessary in order to resuscitate the ailing economy, which is still in an epileptic state.”

“Like I always say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with borrowing money to fund development projects in your country. Look as far back as 15 years ago, where this country made a lot of money, I would say the biggest in our history but nothing was done to sustain the economic growth, talking about the provision of infrastructures like roads, hospitals, stable electricity and the likes.”

Barau blamed the past governments of the country for their failures in creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive, pointing out that with stable electricity and other vital measures, the country would have gone past counting on foreign direct investment.

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He assured Nigerians that if approved, the present administration will ensure that the provisions of the budget will be implemented accordingly, just like last year’s budget, which he said was implemented to a tune of 100%.

“This is an unprecedented feat that was never achieved in the history of the country’s budget.”

Copies of the 2022 appropriation bill has already been made available to members of the two chambers of the National Assembly for their references, defence by MDAs, before its deliberation and subsequent approval, ”the lawmaker added.

Borrowing budget