The federal government has established a Sinking Fund of N100 billion from which it will retire federal government bonds and to stem the rising rate of the nation’s domestic debt.
This is in a bid to address the growing concerns on the rise of the nation’s domestic debt which currently stands at N6.35 trillion and about 15.7 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-iweala, made this known on Thursday at a lecture she delivered for the 2012 Alumni Day of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association.
The Minister expressed her optimism that the strategies put in place to check the debt profile will yield positive results as she reeled out figures to reflect how the federal government has slowed the growth for borrowing in the last three years with more plans to do that in the 2013 budget.
She insisted that relative progress is being achieved in the real sector of the economy like power, agriculture, ports and oil sector reforms, whilst she admitted that Nigerians want more in quality of their lives.
On the clamour from Nigerians for improved standard of living, the former World Bank Manager, stated affirmatively that “if Nigeria’s macro and micro economic condition is not stable, we will not be able to fix all the problems with other sector.”
She also revealed that the federal government is working on improving mortgage refinancing so as to be able to provide about 200,000 mortgages in the next 5years.