The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has lambasted those who condemned the rate of borrowing by the Federal Government, describing them as nothing more than “backyard economists.”

Fashola said this while giving a keynote address on how government policy affects business and society in national development at the Lagos Business School.

Fashola said those finding faults with the government’s rate of borrowing were largely unsuccessful individuals.

He said,

“Today, the government is constructing roads in every state of Nigeria and while revenues are a challenge to prompt completion. Some ‘experts’ who have not successfully shown they can run a small business moan the loudest about Nigeria’s borrowing to fund infrastructure investment.

“A Nigerian has borrowed billions of dollars to build a refinery, petrochemical plant, fertiliser plant and gas processing plant, yet some backyard economists complain that a country whose population is in the hundreds of millions is borrowing too much to fix rail, roads, ports (air and sea) and power.”