EU. NO MORE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR NIGERIA.

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. e European Union (EU) has declared that it will no longer avail Nigeria of its financial assistance.
EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Michel Arrion, disclosed this in Abuja while delivering a distinguished lecture organised by the IBB Golf Club, with the theme ‘40 years of European Union in Nigeria: Lessons learned and the way forward’.
The ambassador, who said that EU was not promising further assistance to Nigeria, however, said that Nigeria remains EU key partner in view of the role it plays in global affairs.
The envoy also stressed that the union would scale up its efforts towards the country’s institutional, political and economic development for a more prosperous future.
He said that Nigeria could not be said to be poor as it is has enough resources to meet its developmental needs.
While expressing concern that on the economic level of the country, Arrion called for a more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth to ensure growth and stability and unleash its enormous economic potential.
Arrion explained that the combined aides to the country were about ten percent of the country’s annual budget.
According to him, the official development assistance (ODA) flow in Nigeria is about $2.5 billion yearly, which corresponds roughly to about 10 percent of the federal budget (N7.3 trillion or $24 billion).
This, he said, has raised the question of should EU continue to give aide to Nigeria?
Arrion, however, said the regional bloc would scale up its efforts towards the country’s institutional, political and economic development for a more prosperous future.
“We are not offering more financial support; we are proposing more political and policy dialogue, technical assistance, capacity building, training, transfer of technology.
“We are also proposing more advocacies for more private investments and other innovative sources of funding,” the EU envoy said.
The envoy, therefore, called for improvement in tax collection to finance the development of the country.
According to him Nigeria must find alternative funding to ODA including improved tax collection which must be improved at least five times more and also spend better.
Quoting Pricewaterhouse

Coopers (PwC 2016), he said: “Nigeria collects about N5.5 trillion or $18 billion per year.
“About 10 million people (10 percent of adult population) are registered for personal income tax (half of them in Lagos).
“The rate of VAT compliance by registered entities is about 12 percent. The rate is lower for corporate income tax nine percent.”
He also said Nigeria must attract more foreign investment five times more, to reach the level of Angola or Vietnam for instance and put in place more and better public private partnerships.
Dr Wale Omole, President of National Problems and Solutions, a non-government organisation, said he is not surprised at the decision by the EU, stressing that Nigeria needs to brace up and face its development squarely.
“Foreign grants and subventions cannot continue forever. The world is changing and we need to change with it. We should be eating what we kill. No free money anymore. We are a blessed country and we should tap other resources aside from oil”, he said.
The medical director, T&S Hospital, Lagos, said Nigeria can successfully raise enough money to run the economy without seeking foreign aids, saying things are the way they are because of mismanagement by all tiers of government...

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