TheCable

Senate President Ahmad Lawan says the federal government should explore other ways of financing its projects in order to reduce borrowing.

Lawan spoke during a joint session of the national assembly on Thursday where President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2022 budget proposal.

The senate president said the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have the potential to contribute more to the federation account.

“Mr President, we understand that due to paucity of revenue, the federal government has to resort to raising funds from foreign and domestic sources to provide infrastructure across the country,” he said.

“That is why the national assembly approved the requests for borrowing. The commitment of the federal government in providing infrastructure across the country means that the funds must be raised one way or the other.

“Government should also explore other sources of funding for its projects in order to reduce borrowing.”

Lawan said the recent efforts by the national assembly in collaboration with the executive to ensure revenue is gotten from the revenue-generating agencies is a step in the right direction.

“Equally important is the recent position taken by the legislature and the executive to insist on zero allocation for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that fail to remit/upload their revenues for the 2022 appropriation,” he said.

“This saw an increase in the contribution of the MDAs by over N400 billion. It is my view that MDAs can contribute to the federation account much more than that.

“This policy should be expanded and deepened to cover more MDAs.”

As of the second quarter of 2021, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said Nigeria’s total public debt (federal and state governments) has risen to N35.46 trillion.