The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says Nigeria’s N6 trillion debt profile was “very manageable’’.

Okonjo-Iweala stated this in Abuja yesterday at the ministerial platform to commemorate the 2012 Democracy Day and the one-year anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

She, however, expressed concern over the country’s rising domestic debt.

Quoting the Debt Management Office (DMO),she revealed that Nigeria’s external debt stock is $5.6 billion while the domestic debt stock is put at N5.96 trillion.

The coordinating minister of the economy noted that the public debt at 17 per cent of GDP ratio was still far below the 30 per cent target set by the Federal Government for borrowing.

“We should not be complacent; we want to watch our domestic debt.

“Within that category our foreign borrowing is only about 2 per cent, so we are doing very well in terms of keeping our foreign debts very low.

“But on the domestic side, we have been experiencing a relatively significant increase, that is where we want to watch so that we don’t have a borrowing that is too much of what we can sustain. ’’

Okonjo-Iweala assured Nigerians that government would ensure progressive decline in fiscal deficit in the subsequent budgets up till 2015.

She added that in this year’s budget, domestic borrowing declined from N852.27 billion in 2011 to N744.44 billion.

On revenue, she said government was targeting N400 billion as internally generated revenues from government agencies this year.

“We are expecting revenue generating agencies within government to send to the federal coffers a minimum of 25 per cent of their gross revenue.

“This is what Mr President has asked us to do and we are going to that, ’’ she added.

The minister also projected that the country’s economy would grow by 7.2 to 8 per cent this year, with a low inflation rate of at least 9 per cent.

She expressed the hope that the growth in the economy would be inclusive by providing jobs and reducing the poverty rate in the country.