Govt to borrow $7.9 billion, insists Nigeria is not broke

Finds 35,000 ghost workers, saves N14b
FOR the second time in a week, key officials of the Federal Government have maintained that the Nigerian economy is healthy and not threatened by another looming global financial crunch.
Last Monday in Abuja, Minister and Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, had said the current fears about another global economic crisis would not take any toll on Nigeria because its “economy is on track and stable.”
Again yesterday, Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, sang the same song, when she declared that Nigeria is not broke even though the Executive arm of government wants to borrow $7.9 billion to execute critical projects.
Okonjo-Iweala told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, who visited her in Abuja yesterday that despite the signals of an impending global financial crisis, Nigeria is safe with its economy showing enough indicators for sustainable growth that can withstand any economic disturbance in the world stage.
The ministers assurances to Nigerians came at a time the United Nations (UN) says the state of the global economy is worrisome.
The UN yesterday kicked off in New York, the United States (U.S.) a two-day summit of heads of state and government, chief executives of some global and regional financial institutions and the academia to find fresh solutions to the worsening state of the world economy.
Until the Nigeria capital market crumbled under pressure from the crisis in the global scene, government functionaries had repeatedly assured Nigerians that the economy was on course. However, when he inevitable occurred, Nigerians were among those, who were hard-hit.
Okonjo-Iweala said: “We don’t have fiscal crisis. You may have read quite a lot of headlines recently saying that there is a fiscal crisis. I want to say that I don’t understand that. There is no such thing. Nigeria is solvent. We have many assets. We are liquid. There is no course for that at all. We have had some delays in monies being disbursed on time for a day or a few days. But that does not mean that we are broke. Everybody experiences delays here and there. What do you do? You either look for alternative sources to finance your activities or you just wait.
“Remember that we are depending on a resource that is sold in the market. Something that is sold in the market fluctuates. Just like that a seller in the market, your customer delays sometimes in payment. People also forget that the economy depends on a commodity. We are paying our bills and I want to assure you that there is no crisis.”
The minister said the government was taking more measures to curtail the phenomenon, stressing that “we will adjust as we move along. As at this moment, we are meeting all our bills. I believe that we need to face this challenge squarely.”
On the global crisis, Okonjo-Iweala hinted that the government was looking inwards for solutions to strengthen the economy and create jobs for Nigerians.
According to her, the debate in Europe is leaving room for so many uncertainties. “The slow rate of recovery there and others like Japan and the U.S. is a source of global worry. Nigeria must look inwards to strengthen itself in order to withstand any crisis that might be brewing in the world.
“I am happy to report that we are doing well.  Nigeria is one of the fastest growing economies.  The good news is that most of the growth has been coming from the non-oil sector. Are we 100 per cent happy with this growth? The answer is No! The growth is not inclusive. We are not creating as many jobs as required. We have the growth, but we have leakages that we must address. The President is saying that we must find other means of boosting the economy and I can assure you that we have huge plans for agriculture, solid minerals, housing and construction initiatives, manufacturing and different aspects of the economy. In spite of the challenges we face in terms of security, we continue to have influx of investors; major companies are coming to express interest in investing in the economy.”
Nigeria’s external reserve, she disclosed, stood at $36.8 billion as at May with a significant improvement of $2.654 billion to close at $37.534 billion on March 22 - the highest position since the beginning of the year. But with the new figure, it is definitely dropping, the minister said.
For short-term financing of projects, Okonjo-Iweala said the government had sent a request to the National Assembly to approve for the Executive arm to borrow about $7.9 billion.
This is a soft credit with interest rate below three per cent to enable the government finance projects in agriculture, water resources, education and health, and strengthening of governance. “Most of the interventions would be deployed to states to build up their capacities in these areas,”
Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama, said the subsidy protests delayed certain things in government, “but we are back on track. It is a temporary delay.”
He stressed that the new Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) had paid off, as many ghost workers had been fished out with huge amount of public funds saved.
The minister said: “We have so far discovered about 35,000 ghost workers in government service and saved the country about N14 billion. We hope to save more as we fish out more ghost workers. By the time we finished with other MDAs, including the police, the savings will get to N33 billion at least. As at January, we had covered 178 MDAs while about 183 were covered in March.”
Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Abdulmumin Jabrin, asked the ministry to go after agencies such as the Nigeria Customers Services (NCS) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (IFRS) to ensure that revenues generated by such organisations are properly remitted to the treasury.
Meanwhile, some civil society groups have lamented what they described as an “unarticulated priorities in the 2012 budget.”   The assertion was made yesterday in Abuja at a press briefing titled: “2012 Federal budget - Where are our priorities? “
The Citizen Wealth Platform (CWP), a non-governmental and faith-based organisation led by Mr. Eze Onyekpere, is leading the agitation for public resources to benefit most Nigerians and not a select few in the corridors of power.
He expressed disgust at the alleged negligence of the group’s recommendations to the National Assembly and the Ministry of Finance on the 2012 budget before it was signed
“CWP made recommendations to the National Assembly and Ministry of Finance on thorny issues in the 2012 budget at the stage it was being considered by the National assembly. These issues range from misplacement of priorities, votes that are unclear and cannot be monitored, illegal votes and generally votes that do not promote the security and welfare of Nigerians,” he stated.