The Chariman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said that Nigeria can finance its yearly budgets without borrowing, only if leakages in critical sectors of the country are properly plugged.
Recall that TheNewsBeam reported that the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS recorded that the nation’s total debt (i.e States and Federal Debt) stood at N33.11 trillion as at 31st of March 2021, revealing that N12.47trn or 37.67% of the debt was external while 20.64trn or 62.33% of the debt was domestic.
Also recall that the Senate approved the request of President Muhammadu Buhari to borrow N2,343,387,942,848, to part-finance the 2021 federal budget size of N13 trillion on the 7th of July, 2021.
However, the EFCC Boss frowned at the borrowings while speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between EFCC and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), on Wednesday, 28 July, 2021, in Abuja.
According to Bawa: “The EFCC so much believe that if we can block the leakages, this country will not need to borrow a single cent from any other country to finance our budget. That is why we are interested in this MoU and keen at ensuring that the extractive industries are sanitised for the betterment of this country,
“I want to assure you that all the issues that your report will raise and all the issues that we are also seeing on our own relating to extractive industries, oil, and gas, as well as solid minerals sectors, will be dealt with.
“The MoU is very clear regarding your expectation and our expectation, and I want to assure you in addition to other issues of training and all of that, we will do our best and ensure that the industry is sanitised for the betterment of this country.”
Furthermore, Bawa promised to use the commission’s Extractive industry Fraud Section to deal with issues relating to the sub-sector and sanitise it.
