Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Amina Mohammed has said that Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s two-time Minister of Finance, spent years to get the country out of debt, but that the country is now back into debt.

She made this known at the International Monetary (IMF) and the UN Working Together conversation on Tuesday. Amina said the UN and IMF must have better conversations on the demands of a growing economy, seeking ways to make growth better and inclusive.

“Public resources are always going to be important, and so is ODA and the private sector. But I think we still haven’t yet got quite the solution and I hope that the work that we do together will open up that space to think more on how to leverage that,” she said.

“As I was coming up from New York, some of the concerns that came up from the meeting we had in China just recently and reports that we have; the debt issues are really big, I mean, having experienced what it was for Ngozi (Okonjo-Iweala) to get debt relief.

“It took her a few years to convince people, and we are now back again in my country, with a level of debt that is worrying, but its happening all over. Africa, is that the way we want to go?

“I think we really need to sit down and have a better conversation about all the asks of a growing economy; that needs to be inclusive, it needs to succeed, because stability is needed more than ever today, across our countries and where we are working.”

As at June 30, 2018, Nigeria’s total debt profile, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO) had risen to $73.21 billion or N22.38 trillion.