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Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, indicated that Beijing is willing to provide additional loans and increase investments in Nigeria’s economy.
Tuggar shared these insights during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics program, addressing inquiries about Nigeria’s debt circumstances and recent engagements with China.
“No, that is not what we are discussing with China. And when it comes to the issue of debt, look at the debt-to-GDP ratio of Nigeria, we are not even among the critically indebted nations.
“When you talk about the debt of a developing country, Nigeria is not in that sort of precarious situation. As a matter of fact, China is prepared to lend more, China is prepared to invest more in Nigeria in terms of infrastructure development and other things,” Tuggar said.
He highlighted that although Nigeria has advocated for global debt relief initiatives, particularly at the United Nations General Assembly, China is willing to enhance its financial support to Nigeria.
During the 79th session of the UNGA in New York, Vice President Kashim Shettima, standing in for President Bola Tinubu, urged global leaders to make debt forgiveness for Nigeria and other developing nations a priority among creditors and multilateral financial institutions.
However, Tuggar pointed out that debt forgiveness is a slow-moving process and has not been realized in the latest UNGA meetings.
Tuggar said, “Under President Obasanjo, we benefited from debt forgiveness. It’s a process; it’s not just an event, it takes time but you have to be there, you have to be present, and then these things happen, they don’t happen overnight.
“The effect that we felt the last time we had debt forgiveness did not just happen with one UNGA.”
According to the Debt Management Office’s Q1 2024 report, Nigeria’s combined domestic and external debts amounted to N121.67tn ($91.46bn).