The $29.9 billion loan request by the Federal Government is not a trap, Debt Management Office (DMO) Director-General Dr Abraham Nwankwo has said.

“The first thing to note is that this borrowing is normal. Normal in the sense that over the past 20 years, there is no year we have not borrowed; so, interpreting the proposal submitted to the National Assembly by Mr President for a three-year borrowing programme to be an indirect way of trapping the country does not seem to be logical because Nigeria has always borrowed every year.”

He stated: “Every year there is a budget and if you check the budgets many years back you will see that we have been borrowing both external and domestic; so there is nothing new about this. Let me also emphasize that since we exited from the Paris and London club debt in 2005-2006 we have always borrowed almost from all these sources we want to borrow from now.”

“If the $29.9 billion external loan is secured, if we build infrastructure in the next five to seven  years before those loans mature in 15 to 30 years, Nigeria would be in a position to service her debt and turn around the economy.”

Source:the nation