...restructures commercial bank debts
The Debt Management office (DMO) over the week-end held a one-day workshop to enlighten publishers of the new media(online) on public debt management.
The Director General of the DMO, Dr Abraham Nwankwo, dismissed the notion that Nigeria has an unhealthy debt stock, according to him Nigeria’s debt is sustainable.
“Our debt is among the lowest in the world in terms of GDP ratio. In terms of ratio, you find that we are not doing badly, but I admit that we need to do a lot of work to put our economy in better shape.”
Dr Nwankwo revealed that the DMO has restructured commercial bank debts of 23 states into 20-year Federal Government of Nigeria bonds. He further stated that the total debt restructured is N575 billion.
The chief debt officer of the nation commended President Muhammadu Buhari for promptly taking appropriate steps to bail out financially troubled states. “Countries have problems from time to time. What matters is how fast the leadership responds to the problems. In this case, President Muhammadu Buhari has acted promptly and his government took appropriate action to restructure.
In his presentation Mr Oladele Afolabi, Head, Portfolio Management Department discussed about sources of government borrowing, the various procedures for external and domestic borrowing for both states and the federal government.
Mrs A’smau Mohammed, Director, Strategic Programmes; and Head, Portfolio Management, made a presentation showing the benefits of the Establishment of Debt Management Departments (DMDs) in all the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT.
According to her, after the exit of Nigeria from the Paris and London club creditors in 2006, the DMO in a bid to guide against relapse into un-sustainable debts, came up with the initiative of ensuring that the sub- nationals became sustainable. She also disclosed that DMO initiatives have made a formidable impact in institutionalising debt management practices at the Sub-national level.
Mrs Mohammed further revealed that the DMO has succeeded in establishing debt management department, (DMDs) in all 36 states of the federation and the FCT with a comprehensive and updated domestic debt data of all the states, and FCT which has been published annually since 2011.
On her own part, Hannatu Suleiman, Director, Debt recording & Resettlement, talked about control measures for effective and prompt debt settlement and its benefits.
She also talked about external debt settlement and process.
Patience Oniha, Director, Market Development in her presentation sentation highlighted some of the critical activities involved in the Issuance of Eurobonds in the International Capital Market (ICM).
Oniha, said that the Objectives for issuing the Eurobond were primarily to Diversify the sources from which the Government can borrow.
Nigeria’s activities in the ICM anchored by the DMO have been very successful in terms of subscription recorded and other objectives for their Issuance, she concluded.
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