The federal government on Tuesday defended its borrowing plans despite an increase in non-oil revenue by over 50%.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had earlier announced that his administration had met its projected revenue by over 50% as of September 2025.
Despite the achievement, critics of Tinubu’s administration have expressed reservations over the revenue success, saying that the government does not need to continue its borrowing plans for the year
But Zacch Adedeji, the Special Adviser on Revenue, Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, while speaking on the federal government tax reforms at the presidential Villa, on Tuesday, defended federal government borrowings, saying that ” the borrowing plans were already embedded in the current 2025 budget plans.
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According to him, ” there is nothing wrong with borrowing. Moreover, the current borrowing plans were part of the 2025 budget, aimed at funding infrastructure”
Adedeji revealed that the revenue increase has further helped to improve the country’s economic ratings.
He recalled that the increase in revenue has also improved economic activities at the subnational levels, as Governors no longer run to Abuja for bailouts following an increase in States’ shares from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee FAAC
He also revealed that while the federal government collected N711 billion as revenue in May 2023, the revenue jumped to N3.5trillion by August 2025
” What is the component of a country? You have expenditure, revenue, and loans in all budgets. So, if my expenditure for the year is N100,000 and I plan that 80 is from revenue and I will borrow 20, and I have done revenue of 80 and I am borrowing according to what I have in my budget of borrowing 20, what is the problem with that?
“Borrowing is not a problem. Banks are part of our economic ecosystem, and there is no country or individual in the world that survives based on its own income. When the government borrows from the bank, we pay interest; it is from that interest that they pay their salaries.
” It is from the salary that they pay taxes to the government, and it is from the difference between profit and lending that I collect taxes
” When you borrow to do road infrastructure, and in the future you collect taxes from anybody using that road, you can pay back the loans
“Borrowing is part of an economic plan, and any country that will grow has to borrow because it is part of the ecosystem of a viable nation
“So when Mr President said we have met our target or we are doing well in revenue, and they say why are we borrowing ,is borrowing not part of the budget we submitted to the national assembly?”
Speaking on Ways and Means, Adedeji said the President stopped it, but the country is paying both the principal and the interest.
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” Mr President stopped printing, and the whole loan is taken as a Federal government loan, and we are paying principal and interest, and that is why you have the stability in the system, and that is why you don’t have pressure on the exchange rate.
“Because all pillars of the real economic indices are firmly grounded, it is not about how much, but it is about how well we apply the income,” he said
