The Federal Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed has said that Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio is high because of the country’s large expenditure base.

The minister said this in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Friday, October 15, 2021.

Explaining, Zainab said;

“Our debt service to overall revenue is high because we have a very large expenditure base. We have a large proportion of our budget dedicated to payroll, and Mr. President had decided from the beginning of his administration that we were not going to disengage staff.

“So, you have to pay salaries, you have to pay pensions. And also, we have to fund the other arms of government, which are the judiciary and the legislature.”

She added;

“The high price of oil means that we would be able to earn more revenue. At $85 per barrel is way above the $40 per barrel we have on our 2021 fiscal projections.”

“But we also have the challenge of having to buy petroleum products for use in-country, because we do not have functional refineries. So that eats into the revenues we would have otherwise realised” the finance minister regretted.