Rising from its council meeting, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has identified steps the government can take to boost revenue and foreign exchange inflows.
In a statement, its Director General, Dr. Chinyere Almona, said: “The country’s debt situation has become worrisome with debt servicing consuming a significant share of the revenue. The debt service to revenue ratio for the period of January to May 2021 stood at about 98 percent up from 83% recorded in 2020 according to the budget implementation report.”
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She said although Nigeria is rich in assets including firms, lands and property, they are underutilised. “These assets are grossly underutilised and contribute too little to the country’s fiscal and financial situation because their market values are currently not known.”
Almona said the government should immediately establish the market values of the assets, securitise them and commercialise real estate assets to raise revenue.
She said existing debt stocks should be replaced with asset-linked debt to ease the debt servicing burden; attract fresh Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and generate new revenue streams from commercialised real estate portfolios.
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