ACTIONAID FLAYS RISING DEBT PROFILE,INCESSANT STRIKES BY MEDICAL PERSONNEL IN NIGERIA.ACTIONAID

ActionAid Nigeria has decried the increase in public fiscal deficit, financed mostly by domestic and foreign borrowings, with high debt service payments, estimated at more than half of federally collected revenues which now pose a major fiscal risk to Nigeria’s economy.

This was the contained in a statement issued by the General Assembly Members of ActionAid Nigeria, after a virtual meeting to review the State of the Nation signed by Yusuf Ogwuzebe.

According to the Non-Governmental Organization, Nigeria is also faced with an unprecedented wave of different but overlapping security crises , from kidnapping to extremist insurgencies , almost every corner of the country has been hit by violence and crime and the growing insecurity has been closely linked to the high rate of poverty in the country.
The organization recommends that Nigeria should adopt the principles of fiscal federalism to solve the problems of rising public debt, unemployment, inflation, and high cost of living and enable the country to break the vicious cycle of poverty.
On cracking the nation’s current security challenges the civil society groups believes that this requires increasing the manpower and welfare of all security agencies and equipping them with modern combat equipment, skills, and training. As well as renewal of partnership with neighboring countries to enhance intelligence exchange and information sharing that would help in quelling the insurgency and other sundry crimes.
ActionAid Nigeria believes that Federal and state governments must explore different models to improve the work environment for medical practitioners to address the issue of perennial industrial actions in the health sector and this includes making health insurance mandatory with sound mechanisms to prevent corruption for universal health care coverage.