By Dipo Olowookere
Federal Government has been charged to ensure it drastically reduces the accumulation of domestic debt in order to free the market for better access by the private sector.
This advice was given by the Nigerian Senate when it resumed plenary duties yesterday after going for an annual recess last month.
The upper chamber of the National Assembly said though there would be need to borrow, government must begin to look at other alternatives to borrowing, as it is beginning to have a serious effect on the fiscal operations of the economy.
The Senate, which passed a motion on Stabilizing and Sustaining the Post-Recession Growth of the Nigerian Economy, further tasked the executive to ensure both fiscal and monetary policies are harmonised so as to reduce the high interest.
The upper parliament urged the national economic managers to remain focused and to ensure that the current growth of 0.55 percent was built upon and increased substantially in the months and years ahead.
It said both the fiscal and monetary authorities must come together to harmonize the fiscal and monetary policies with a view to drastically reducing the high interest rates that have adversely affected borrowing for investment by the real sector of the economy.
The Senate said moving forward, it would continue to work with the Executive to sustain the growth of the economy.
“On our part, we will continue to work to fast-track critical pieces of legislation that deal with finance and infrastructural development,” the red chamber of the National Assembly assured.
On the issue of the implementation of the 2017 budget, the Senate said, “In order the ensure that we get to the appropriate GDP growth rate that is needed to sustain the development of Nigeria, the Senate Committees will also be working to ensure that the 2017 budget is properly and expediently executed.
