The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday warned the Federal Government of Nigeria about its rising debt profile arising especially from foreign loans.

The warning is coming after President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent request to the National Assembly for its approval to borrow $5.5billion to fund the 2017 budget.

The IMF Director, Monetary and Capital Markets, Tobias Adrian while issuing the warning lamented the fact that the external borrowing of low income countries like Nigeria has been on the rise over the years.

On her own part, IMF Assistant Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, Catherine Pattillo said despite the nation’s rising debt profile, the government can improve its infrastructure by mobilizing more non-oil revenues.

Pattillo said: “The concern of oil exporters is that unless there is action now, debt which has been rising is a concern because of the interest payments. So if you have continuing rise in debt, the interest payments would consume a large part of any revenue that you collect and you won’t be able to use that revenue for the objectives of the economic growth and recovery programmes like increasing growth and employment.

“So for ensuring that you have the ability to use those revenues for enhancing expenditure, there is need to make sure that interest to revenue is kept at a reasonable level,” she added.

According to recent data from the Debt Management Office of the IMF, Nigeria’s public debt as at June 2017 stood at $64.19billion (N19.63Million) which might become a serious challenge if the resources gotten from such borrowing are not put to good use.