President Muhammadu Buhari, on Saturday, defended his administration’s borrowing describing it as a necessary step to provide infrastructures that will give opportunities for the growth of the Nigerian economy.
Buhari stated this during his last Independence Day address to the Country on October 1st 2022.
He said; “The Federal Government is already expanding port operations to ensure that they provide opportunities for the growth of the Nigerian economy.
“We have also continued to accelerate our infrastructure development through serviceable and transparent borrowing, improved capital inflow & increased revenue generation by expanding the tax bases and prudent management of investment proceeds in the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
“To further open up our communities to economic activities, we have continued to boost our railway infrastructure with the completion of a good number of critical railways and at the same time rehabilitating as well as upgrading obsolete equipment.”
The President also noted that no village in the country was left out in his administration’s Social Investment Programmes such as N-Power, trader-moni, market moni, among others.
“I am pleased to inform my fellow citizens that besides our emphasis on infrastructural development with its attendant opportunities for job creation, employment generation and subsequent poverty reduction, our focused intervention directly to Nigerians through the National Social Investment Programme is also yielding benefits.’’
“There is hardly any ward, village or local government in Nigeria today that has not benefited from one of the following: N-Power, trader-moni, market moni, subsidized loans, business grants or Conditional Cash Transfers.’’
“All the aforementioned programmes along with various interventions by the National Social Investment programme, direct support to victims of flooding and other forms of disasters have provided succour to the affected Nigerians.”