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Nigeria’s Debt Profile Among Lowest In The World, Says Osinbajo

The decline in growth, which started at the end of 2014, has been reversed, inflated has stabilized at about 11 per cent over the past six months and our current account was in the surplus around 1.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product last year.

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Yemi Osinbajo, Vice-President of Nigeria, says Nigeria’s current debt burden is one of the lowest in terms of ratio to the economy worldwide. 

The Vice-President made this claim on Monday while speaking at the 50th convocation of the University of Lagos in Akoka.

Speaking on the theme: 'Nigeria Rising: The Path to Prosperity', Osinbajo said inflation in Nigeria had stabilized at 11 per cent over the past six months.

He said: “We restored medium-term planning with the Economic Recovery Growth Plan which served as a useful loadstone in improving macroeconomic performance, boosting the real sector of the economy and building infrastructure. The decline in growth, which started at the end of 2014, has been reversed, inflated has stabilized at about 11 per cent over the past six months and our current account was in the surplus around 1.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product last year.

“Our foreign reserves can cover at least six months of import of goods and services and despite understandable concerns, our debt burden is only about 22 per cent of the size of our economy, which is one of the lowest ratios in the world.

“We have very clear objectives. As you know, the problem of our country is not planning or designing of great projects, it is in the actual implementation. We are fortunate that Muhammadu Buhari is not an orator, he is a doer.”

He said the next four year would feature reforms in the aviation, and export and import sectors, just as the regulatory agencies would broaden into business facilitators.

Professor Wale Babalakin, the Pro-Chancellor of the institution, said the whole essence of an academic environment was to display a diversity of knowledge, as he insisted that “only academics should be in the environment of academics, not a person that sees the academia as a last resort.”

Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe,  the Vice-President of the University, said the institution is growing and by the end of the year, UNILAG’s ranking would be higher because the university had done a lot of research with various grants received.