Nigeria demands more debt relief
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Many African countries have had extensive debt relief over the last decade. Nigeria is anxious to get in on the act too. A small group from the Nigerian parliament is visiting some of the creditor countries seeking support. The head of the delegation, Senator Udo Udoma, currently in Washington, says that he wants debt cancelled altogether. He says it is unconscionable that Nigeria is paying so much on its debts when there is so much poverty in the country. “At a time that about 79,000 Nigerian children between the ages of one and five are dying from malnutrition, lack of adequate healthcare and so on, I think that we are entitled to some relief,” said Senator Udoma. Corrupt The past unwillingness of creditor governments to agree to debt relief reflects concerns about corruption, which has been a severe problem in Nigeria. Creditors have also had concerns about economic policy performance, and Nigeria’s reluctance to be monitored by the International Monetary Fund. Mr Udoma said that Nigeria is now making progress on corruption. He said that he at least would accept outside monitoring to ensure that funds released by debt relief were used properly. He also said that much of the debt was incurred by previous military governments. Much of the money lent never reached Nigeria, he said, and much was ostensibly for projects that in fact never existed. Source : news.bbc.co.uk |