Nigeria: Govt to encourage local and foreign investments, averse to borrowing

Nigeria says it has no intention to borrow from any local or foreign orgnaization with its removal of subsidy on petrol and exchange rate harmonization.

Finance Minister Olawale Edun said this on Monday, as the new government tries to find a solution to the nation's ailing economy with double-digit inflation and a high debt burden.

Edun who doubles as the coordinating minister for the economy said that the "benefit of the subsidy removal would be ploughed back into various sectors aimed at boosting government revenue and improving business environment for investment".

Nigeria, Africa's largest economy has been battered by previously low oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered two successive recessions -2016 and 2020 -which it has since exited with sluggish growth.

In May, President Bola Tinubu vowed to expand the economy by at least 6% a year, and create jobs. Critics say the bold reforms Mr Tinubu has embarked upon so far have sent prices of basic goods and services soaring and piled unprecedented pressure on average Nigerians who have no safety nets as compared with the big pay and largesse of the ruling class.