Despite its excruciating debt service burden that has already drawn the red flag of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral financial institutions, the Federal Government, yesterday, confirmed it would soon be heading to the international financial market to raise about $2.8 billion in Eurobond to fund capital projects in the budget.

Disclosing this yesterday in Bali, Indonesia, while headlining the country’s ‘takeaways’ from the 2018 annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, said the country still has significant legroom for more borrowings with its total debt profile at just three per cent of GDP.

Apparently refusing to accept the IMF’s rating about the country’s huge debt stock and service obligations, the Minister stated that Nigeria still has much legroom for further borrowings since its total debt of over N72 trillion represents only 3 per cent of the nation’s GDP.

She said Nigeria’s challenge at the moment was not about the size of its debt, but about its lean revenue streams that are making serving obligations a Herculean tax for the government.

•Excerpted from Daily Sun report