We never disagreed with Adeosun on foreign borrowing –World Bank

The World Bank Group has said that it was misquoted by the media report which claimed that it disagreed with Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on the issue of the country’s government assessing foreign loans to stimulate its economy and finance infrastructure projects.

A media report had claimed that World Bank Senior Economist for Nigeria, Gloria Joseph-Raji, at an event in Abuja, disagreed with Adeosun on the issue of borrowing and said that “Nigeria has a decent debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio, currently about 19 per cent. It is the debt to revenue ratio that is of concern and that rate is a sustainable issue. That is of concern to us and is also a concern to the government.”

But the ministry of finance on Wednesday in a statement said that the World Banks denied the report, in a mail to the Minister of Finance by the Senior Communications Officer of the World Bank, Mr. Rachid Benmessaoud.

It said the Bank claimed that the comment by Joseph-Raji was misrepresented and quoted out of context by the media report.

“On October 11th, during the launch of Africa’s Pulse, the World Bank’s biannual analysis of African economies, World Bank Senior Economist for Nigeria, Gloria Joseph-Raji, was asked by a reporter to share her views on the Federal Government’s plan to increase external borrowing.

“At no point did she mention that the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) disagree on the need to rebalance the country’s debt portfolio. Where expenditures exceed revenue, governments will need to borrow.

“In doing so, the Federal Government is trying to rebalance its portfolio towards more external borrowing with lower interest rates and longer maturities,” Benmessaoud said.

According to Benmessaoud, Joseph-Raji only applauded the Nigerian Government’s attempt to rebalance its portfolio to ensure it lowers the cost of its borrowing, as outlined in its 2016-2019 medium term debt management strategy released last year.

He quoted Joseph-Raji to have said, “The use of IDA concessional financing, among others, is supportive of the FGN’s effort in this regard, with the added focus on poverty alleviation and building shared prosperity in Nigeria.

“The latest issue of Africa’s Pulse points out that growth is Nigeria is projected to pick up from 1.0 per cent in 2017 to 2.5 per cent in 2018 and 2.8 per cent in 2019. While Government debt in 2017 is projected to rise, it remains low in Nigeria.”

The whole issue followed Adeosun statement at the 2017 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, in Washington, where she said among other things that “With Nigeria’s source of revenue dropping by nearly 85 per cent, the country had no option but to borrow.”

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