Nigeria has been named in a new report alongside ten other countries within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as having very serious debt problems, IgbereTV reports
The new report published by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa noted that the countries are currently in debt distress based on debt sustainability analysis.
The 10 other countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
The report, titled ‘Debt Management, restricting and Sustainability in ECOWAS’, was recently launched at the Debt Management Office in Abuja.
According to the report, a financial crisis in Nigeria can threaten other countries in the ECOWAS region.
The report read in part, “According to the debt sustainability analysis, 11 ECOWAS countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo – are currently in debt distress. However, the remaining four countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone – are at low risk of debt distress.
“We also find that a financial catastrophe occasioned by a debt crisis in one country may spread throughout the region. The financial woes in Nigeria, in particular, portends a serious threat to other nations in the region.
