Nigerian Lawmakers and experts with the Debt Management Office (DMO) have prescribed the development of the real sector as a major solution to the challenge of keeping the nation’s debt within sustainable level.

At a retreat organised to enable the members of parliament and the DMO to rub minds on how to manage Nigeria’s debt situation to fit into the government’s economic transformation agenda, Nigeria’s debt profile was considered, with view to finding a reliable way of cutting it down.

Making a presentation at the 3-day retreat held at the Miccom Golf Hotel, Abuja on Saturday, the DMO Director General, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, said that lesser government borrowings and creation of opportunities for the private sector to raise long term capital for the development of the real sector and infrastructure would reduce poverty in the nation.

Dr. Nwankwo told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management that Nigeria’s public debt profile as at September 2013 was $8.264 million which he said was 22% of the total GDP just as the Domestic debt profile as at September 2013 was also 7.032 trillion Naira.

However, he maintained that the level of the debt was still sustainable.

All the speakers emphasised the involvement and cooperation of Nigeria’s corporate businesses, as the sector could guarantee sustainability of the nation’s debt by leveraging on the existing sovereign benchmark to raise long term capital in the domestic market for the development of the real sector.

It is expected that the ideas that have been exchanged by the parliamentarians lead by Honourable Adeyinka Ajayi and the DMO, on the importance of debt management to the economic wellbeing of the nation, would help in solving Nigeria’s debt challenges.