The Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr. Abraham Nwankwo has announced that the office has raised the entire N1.18 trillion domestic component of the 2016 approved borrowing to fund the Nigerian economy for 2016 fiscal year.
“Nigeria has successfully developed a strong domestic market, he said.
Dr. Nwankwo, who made the announcement when he addressed members of the senate committee on local and foreign debts, said that the remaining N635 billion is to be borrowed from external sources .
He said that the country expected US$1 billion from the African Development Bank (AfDB) “but AfDB released $600 million.”
The Ministry of Finance, he said, is working to secure the balance but the current economic situation was making the realization a Herculean task. However, Nwankwo noted that there is some good news because the government “can fall back on domestic borrowing.”
The Chief Debt Officer of the nation also revealed that the federal government is servicing its debt as at when due. According to him, of the N1.161 trillion to be serviced in 2016 the federal government has serviced N1.09 trillion.
“Nigeria is in a very strong position to service its debts because of our debt sustainability analysis which ensures that we make sure to we do not go near threshold of borrowing and to avoid unsustainable debts so we are operating miles away from the threshold.”
Giving this development, Dr. Nwankwo assured the Senate that “we will build sustainable economy in the next 3-5 years.”
“DMO is working to see that the $1 billion Eurobond is mobilized by second quarter of 2017, he said.
On the proposed $29.9 billion loan, he told the senators that “the loan will be borrowed over a three year period not at once. Drawdown of the loan will be done based on the progress of the work and it is essentially for infrastructure because we don’t have revenue at hand to provide infrastructure.”
These infrastructures he said “will help reduce poverty. There must be no leakages, that should be our focus and there must be accountability. Investment of $30 billion should be in infrastructure that can repay itself.” [myad]
