Nigeria's borrowing mainly to fund infrastructure projects: minister

The Nigerian government's plan to seek external loans was to mainly use the funds to facilitate various infrastructure projects in the West African country, Minister of Budget and National Planning Udoma Udo Udoma has said.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is currently facing a huge infrastructure deficit causing the government to seek enormous financial resources required to fill the gap in the face of dwindling resources and the inability of annual budgetary provisions to bridge the infrastructure deficit.

The government is seeking to source loans up to 29.9 billion U.S. dollars from international development partners such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

In a statement reaching Xinhua on Friday, Udoma said when granted, the loans would help the country grow a sustainable economy through the completion of proposed infrastructure projects.

The effect of investing in infrastructure was enormous, he said, adding it was the right way of setting the country on the path of growth and sustainable development.

According to the minister, the Nigerian government had designed a National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, which is expected to move economy of the oil producing country out of recession.

Nigeria's economy officially entered recession in September.

Udoma said the Nigerian government was exploring other means of generating revenue internally, apart from sourcing for external loans. Endit