Seun Onigbinde, Chief Executive Officer of BudgIT, has expressed concerns over the federal government’s overreliance on loans, warning that it could perpetually commit the country’s future to debt repayment, news.ng reports.
You may recall that on Thursday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a letter to the Nigerian Senate, requested approval to borrow a fresh $516 million loan to execute the 1,000-kilometre Sokoto-Badagry super highway—a move many concerned Nigerians, including Onigbinde, believe should be checked.
Onigbinde, who appeared on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Friday, said the current administration of President Tinubu will bear the consequences, despite the interest rate arrangements agreed with the financiers.
According to him, “At the end of the day, the current government is bearing the brunt of that debt because at the end of the day, no matter what interest rate, no matter the moratorium, at one point in time you would have to pay back with future revenue.”
He stressed that loans without proper structures are worse than the wastage of public funds.
“A poorly taken loan is so more dangerous than wasting public revenues because you are literally mortgaging revenues that would come in the future at the end of the day,” he stated.
He faulted the approval process of the Sokoto-Badagry road project by the Senate, describing it as overambitious, especially while similar projects remain abandoned or unfinished across the country. He cited the Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbomoso-Ilorin Road.
He said, “It’s unfortunate to take a loan when procurement processes are not effective. The executive can propose anything, but the National Assembly should act as the buffer on all of these issues.
“There are so many roads across the federation that we could target and focus heavily on.”
