Govt Borrowing Should Focus On Infrastructure, Improving Ease Of Doing Business Ican

President, Chartered Institute ofAccountants of Nigeria, ICAN, Chief Davidson Alaribe, has said that government borrowing should be focused on developing infrastructure and improving Ease of Doing Business.

He stated this at a panel session during the Vanguard Economic Discourse themed Nigerias Economic Outlook 2025: Hardship and Pathways to Sustainable Recovery.

Represented by Dr. Oluseyi Oladimeji Olanrewaju, Honorary Treasurer of ICAN, Alaribe said: As we know, to fund a business, we say you do equity at the beginning, and when the business is growing and you want to expand, then you can look the way of debt.

To borrow, you must be specific as to what you want to use the money for, and the return that you are getting from that expansion or from the project must be more than what you are paying as interest on the loan, that is talking as a businessman.

Usually we say dont do long term if what you want to fund is working capital, because that is capital mismatch. Now, taking this to governments, I am hoping that one day we would have a surplus budget in this country, because from the point of view of the businessman, how would you want to budget and you are going to have a deficit, who does that? But that is what we have been seeing in Nigeria for some years.