From Basil Obasi, Abuja

As international development partners explore areas of support to help Nigeria grow a sustainable economy, Budget and Planning Minister, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has re-emphasised that Nigeria’s borrowings are solely to fund infrastructure projects.

Briefing the Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Affairs of the Trade and Policy Department at the French Treasury, Mr. Guillaume Chabert, yesterday, in Abuja, Udoma explained that the simulative effect of investing in infrastructure was enormous and was the surest way of setting the country on the path of growth and sustainable development.

He explained that, “while government is exploring other means of generating revenue internally, we will need to borrow, part of which has to be sourced internationally from sources that can give concessionary terms, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.”

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The Minister expressed government’s appreciation for the support by the French government, particularly in terms of the various bilateral as well as multilateral supports, directly and through the European Union (EU) respectively.

The Minister told the Assistant Secretary, who was accompanied by the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Denys Gauer, that the Nigerian government is working on a National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (NERGP), which is tailor-made to move the country’s economy out of recession and set it on a growth path. “Our plan is that we should be able, within that plan period (2017 – 2020), to achieve not less than 7 per cent growth.”

Udoma said: “We want to make sure that the growth will be an inclusive one not the experience in the past where we used to have growth that was not inclusive. We want to make sure that the growth is inclusive,” he said.