The acting Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Anamekwe Nwabuoku, has said the country is facing a huge financial crisis and revealed that Nigeria borrows money to pay salaries.
The acting AGF made this disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday at a retreat organized by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation for members of the Technical Sub-committee on Cash Management (TSCM).
Nwabuoku explained that there is an increase in government expenditure due to rising security challenges and the social needs of the citizenry.
“We have to borrow to augment payment of salaries and wages. This shows we are in very difficult times. Government income is highly challenged,” He said.
“The theme and objective of the retreat couldn’t have been better captioned, given the fiscal challenges at the moment. Records available indicate that due to dwindling revenues, the treasury had to resort to other sources to augment the payment of federal government public servants. There is an increase in government expenditure due to increasing security challenges and social needs of the citizenry.” He added.
Nwabuoku said there should be deliberate efforts to revert the trend through fiscal discipline, economic diversification, export sector promotion and plunging revenue leakages, among others, to ensure revenue inflow.