Nigeria is doing well in the bond market because it does not default in repayment, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said.
The Minister disclosed this while speaking at the closing ceremony of the just-concluded Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) meeting in Abuja.
The Minister argued that the Federal Government does not borrow recklessly without a well-thought-out plan on the justification for the borrowing.
She said: ‘‘We are indeed concerned about paying back loans. If you look at the records, you will find that Nigeria has been consistent in paying both local and foreign loans and that is why whenever we go to the market, they receive us well because we have been faithful in our repayment.
“We do not just put numbers and borrow; this is a work that was done to determine what is required in terms of expenditure and what we expect to generate in terms of revenue and the gap that is not financed by other financing items is debt.
‘‘And then we have a debt management strategy that guides how we borrow. So, borrowing is carefully calibrated to meet the debt service obligations when they are due.”
