President Buhari Says Nigeria Now In Same Level With Developed Countries

President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed why his administration depends on borrowing as Nigeria's debt reaches N31 trillion while stating Nigeria is now at par with developed countries. AllNews had reported that Nigeria's debt rose from NGN28.62 trillion in March 2020 to NGN31 trillion as at the end of June 2020.

While addressing the debt situation, President Buhari blamed poor infrastructure, stating that in order to provide better infrastructure, there's need to borrow. He stated that loans are needed to construct rails and improve the poor power supply.

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“We have so many challenges with infrastructure. We just have to take loans to do roads, rail and power, so that investors will find us attractive and come here to put their money." Buhari made this known in a recent statement released by his spokesperson Garba Shehu.

Buhari was speaking during a virtual meeting with members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) when he made the comment. Buhari also said Nigeria is better off with the government's push for Nigerians to go back to farming.

He said Nigeria is in a difficult position with oil due to the agreement to produce less, so agriculture has been the saving grace for Nigeria's economy, “We have to accept that decision; otherwise they (Middle-East producers) can flood the market and make the product unviable.

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"So we have cooperated with what we get. With oil, we are in a difficult situation. The politics of oil is that the less you produce, the less you earn. For us to bounce back to productivity, especially in agriculture, the unemployed with many of them uneducated had to be persuaded to go into agriculture.

‘‘If we hadn’t gone back to the lands we would have been in trouble by now. That is why we virtually stopped the importation of food thereby saving jobs and foreign exchange.”

Despite the declining economy, President Buhari said Nigeria is now at the same level with developed countries and the West African nation is lucky to have embrace agriculture again, "COVID has reduced us to the same level as developed countries.

‘‘We are lucky we went back to the land. We eat what we produce. We are doing our best to secure the country and provide infrastructure for investment to be viable in the country."