AN EDITORIAL (Written by Akunna Nmezie) INCREASE IN DEBT BURDEN AND THE ECONOM Two major economic issues at the

center of national discourse today are nations rising debt and the fear on the health of the economy. These are two important issues that need urgent attention. On the economy, there is no consensus between the Coordinating Minister for the economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. go!i O"onjo #wuala, and the $o%ernor of Central &an" of igeria, Mr. 'anusi (amido 'anusi, on the condition of the economy. )hile the C& $o%ernor insisits that the economy is not progressing as go%ernment has projected, the Finance Minister stoutly disagrees, saying the fundamentals of igerias economy remain strong despite the challenges in both domestic and e*ternal mar"ets. +erhaps an indicator that all is not well with our economy, came recently when Debt Management Office ,DMO- reali!es a report their annual Debt 'ustainability .nalysis ,D'.- report in /012, saying that igerias total public debt rose from 3./4 trillion in /010 to 5.06 trillion by the end of December, /01/. This includes both e*ternal and domestic public stoc" owed by the federal and state go%ernment as well as the Federal Capital Territory ,FCT-. This is worrisome, especially when %iewed against the bac"ground that domestic debt constitutes about 77.86 percent of the total public debt stoc", with e*ternal debt amounting to 11./3 percent. This implies that both federal and state go%ernments ha%e been borrowing so much with little to show for the loans obtained. .lthough the increase in the cost of borrowing occasioned by the contractionary monetary policy of the C& , particularly the upward re%iew of the benchmar" from 3./4 to 1/ percent, may ha%e contributed to the rising domestic debt, in other words, this is dwindling the much needed economic growth. Therefore, there is urgent need to politely come up with a plan to tac"le the fundamentals of our economy and restructure go%ernments borrowing plan. )e do not thin" that both the C& and Federal Ministry of Finance ha%e map out a concrete strategy to maneu%er this problem9 going by the latest figures on the nations public stoc" which howe%er poses yet another :red flag; or the nations economy. #f that is the case, the need for the federal and state go%ernments to chec" their propensity for borrowing is %ery necessary, if not compulsory. $o%ernment at all le%els should not try to wish away the damages of the

nations increasing debt profile. Our candid ad%ice remains9 borrowing cautiously and spend prudently. #f we do not do these, our economic growth for /016 at 8./3 percent will be a mirage and /014 may e%en e*ceed the projected domestic debt of 7.666 billion. BUSINESS TODA By Akunna Nmezie) NI!ERIA"S #OWER DEMAND TO HIT $%&'&&& MW THIS (&$)* igerias power demand will hit appro*imately 130,000 megawatts by the end of /016, Minister for +ower, +rofessor Chinedu ebo, has said. ebo said, it was a far cry from the o%er 60,000 megawatts capacity generated by 'outh .frica. <e stated that igerias current electricity consumption and 10,000 megawatts estimated capacity input by end of /016 for o%er 130 million population still drops down to barely / percent of what is produced in 'outh .frica. #n a "eynote address at the opening of the 6 th igerian #nternational +ower =*po and Conference in .buja on Monday, ebo disclosed that the go%ernment has estimated 10,000 megawatts power generation by the end of /016 and the o%erall 60,000 M) to meet its /0>/0/0 target. #n furtherance to meet the target of %ision /0>/0/0, igeria now see"s a di%ersification of energy supply mi* of her energy sources with regard that this has ne%er been the case with the countrys electricity generation. The le%el of renewable energy implementation in igeria is minimal but being endowed with significant ?uantities of renewable energy sources li"e the sun, wind, biomass, dams for hydropower generation among others, igeria is ta"ing %arious measures in implementing renewable energy efficiency programmes to increase the energy mi* in accordance with the @nited ations $eneral .ssemblys commitment to Millennium De%elopment $oals ,MD$s-.