Minister of National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has said N386 billion recovered loot would be used to finance the 2016 budget deficit.
Udoma made the disclosure yesterday while announcing details of the N6.06 trillion budget, adding that the budget deficit will be financed largely through borrowings, which is within the limit of three per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, as stipulated by the Fiscal Act.
As stated by Udoma, the deficit is to be financed mainly through borrowings, projected at about N1.8 trillion, which would be sourced from the domestic bonds and foreign loans.
He said, “The borrowing is to be raised roughly equally from domestic and foreign sources. We have decided to source from international sources so as not to rely exclusively on domestic borrowing, which may have the effect of crowding out the private sector.
“Furthermore, we are optimistic that we may be able to access some of the foreign loans on a concessionary basis. The Ministry of Finance is currently negotiating with multiple sources to secure the external ficing.”
The Minister stated that the Calabar-Lagos and Lagos -Kano rail lines will gulp a combine allocations of N120 billion from the N1.75 trillion total capital with each of the rail line taking N60bn.
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