“Nwaigburu would have to groom an inhouse team of managers that will provide solutions on Debt Service to Revenue Ratio, as one major cause of Budget deficits and unavoidable borrowing which has resulted in arbitrary increase in the debt profile of the state”
With the emergence of the Labour Party led Alex Otti administration, Abia state heaved a sigh of relief from years of underdevelopment and fiscal burden of mismanagement of its resources.
In an electoral victory led by the foremost economist and investment banker, Dr. Alex Otti left no stone unturned in selecting competent and tested professionals from all discipline and career path including politics and finance.
This is where the choice of Dr. Benson O. Nwaigburu, an Elder with the Seventh Day Adventist Church of Nigeria, a Chattered management accountant and lecturer in finance management is of necessity than mere political appointment.
Over the past decades, the economy of Abia state has been the subject of intense debates with a growing debt profile that did not reflect any physical infrastructure development both in the commercial city of Aba and the capital town of Umuahia coupled with years of unpaid salaries of hard working Abia civil servants despite humongous debt obtained by the previous PDP led administration from both domestic and international donors.
With an inherited debt burden of over 191 Billion Naira for a growing medium economy state like Abia that has the capacity to match with the economy of Lagos under prudent fiscal management but has been abysmally deprived, Dr. Benson Nwaigburu strikes a remarkable character to lead such a technical and sensitive department to unravel reasons why such humongous amount in debt and more that may be uncovered, could not be accounted for nor judiciously employed to address the disturbing infrastructure deficit and abuse of the rights of senior citizens and the labourer to earn a living from their hard earned wages.
As a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance Management with the Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education and a visiting Lecturer at Clifford University Abia state, with years of experience teaching and practicing financial management and accounting, Dr. Benson Nwaigburu, also a season author with several published works, has one onerous task to deal with in coordinating the businesses of the Abia state Debt Management Office which in previous times had engaged the services of foreign bodies as consultants with the sole aim of fleecing government with bloated consultancy charges.
Dr. Nwaigburu would have to groom an inhouse team of managers that will provide solutions on Debt Service to Revenue Ratio, as one major cause of Budget deficits and unavoidable borrowing which has resulted in arbitrary increase in the debt profile of the state leaving government activities and its commitment to the citizenry grounded.
One of the major challenges of previous administration was the arbitrary careless attitude to internal revenue generation that resulted into multiple borrowings without extant plans to invest other than sharing donors’ money for primitive materialistic tendencies and portfolio consultancy services that is completely disconnected from the business of government.
This is the major task Dr. Nwaigburu has come to deal with as he focuses on fiscal prudence, development and debt management with due consideration to strengthening the Revenue streams of government from all sources in order to align with statutory budgetary responsibilities of the new government.
Buoyed by the Labour Party mantra of; ‘from Consumption to Production’, the people of Abia state has had it all neatly cut out with their choice of leadership in Dr. Alex Otti, the Executive Governor of Abia State, who deems it fit to engage these class of technocrats, professionals and politicians with a human touch and commitment to duty.
Congratulations to the teacher and humble servant of God’s people Elder Dr. Benson O. Nwaigburu
