External loans: FG has surrendered Nigeria’s economy to foreigners —Adebayo

A professor of Economics at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Abayomi Adebayo, has criticised what he calls “careless subscription to all kinds of loans” by the Federal Government, warning that accumulation of debts puts the country’s economy at risk of external shocks and manipulation. 

Speaking with Sunday Tribune against the backdrop of President Muhammadu Buhari’s $16 billion loan request approved by the Senate last Tuesday, Professor Adebayo said the country’s borrowing history has not shown the loan would be used for the purpose given for taking it. 

Adebayo, who was recently rated the most productive Nigerian researcher in Economics in the 2021 AD Scientific Index ranking of Economists, lamented that previous borrowings have not translated into physical economic impact on the various sectors of the economy. 

The lecturer, while explaining that there is nothing bad in borrowing to bail out the economy, pointed out that the 2022 budget part of which the fresh loan was being sought is fraught with many corrupt projects. 

He advised the Federal Government to learn to make realistic budget, live within available resources and bring down the cost of governance as well as eliminate wastages. 

“A lot of resources from resource endowment angle and borrowing are not efficiently applied to bail the economy out. This is why Nigeria has become like a cursed place for the citizens. 

“The citizens are voluntarily migrating to any country in the world because the leadership has decided to sit on the resources and decide they want to do with it, rather than making the economy better for it,” he said. 

• Read the full interview here.

 

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