UN deputy scribe, Amina Mohammed says Nigeria's debt profile is worrying

Amina Mohammed expressed international community concerns on the growing debt level in Africa.

The deputy secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), Amina Mohammed, said the current state of Nigeria's debt profile is worrying, and poured out international concerns on the growing debt level in Africa.

She said Nigeria is now back to high-level deb, emphasising on how it took the former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala years to negotiate with the Paris Club.

She stated while speaking at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the UN Working Together Conversation with the IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde.

The former Minister of Environment in Nigeria questioned how Africa wants to grow its economy with massive debt. She called for an overall conversation on how to grow the African economy and bring about stability.

“As I was coming up from the New York some of the concern we have coming from China recently, the report we have is that the debt we have was really big... having experienced what it was for Ngozi (Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) to get the debt relief and how it took few years to convince people.

“We are now back again, in my country, the level of debt is worrying, but it is happening all over, for Africa, if that is the way we want to go, we need to sit down and have a better conversation about all the asks of a growing economy; that needs to be inclusive."

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At the wake of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, international communities and economists across the world expressed worry over massive Chinese loan on the African soil. They believed that Chinese loans are burying some countries in massive debt.

But President Muhammadu Buhari and other African leaders swiftly denied engaging in "debt trap" diplomacy adding that Africa needs debt-funded infrastructure development.

On Wednesday, Nigerian government also has dismissed insinuations of the possible takeover of the economy by the Chinese government if it defaults on loan terms.

The country's debt management office explained that Chinese loans are cheaper compared to other international bodies and agencies. It added that loans from China Exim constituted just one of the sources of multilateral and bilateral loans accessed by Nigeria and represented only about 8.5% of the country’s external debt as of June 30, 2018.

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