The Debt Management Office (DMO) has said that N2. 2 trillion is not missing.
The DMO in a statement said: “The provisions in the Annual Appropriation Acts for Debt Service, including the 2018 Appropriation Act, are dedicated for Debt Service payments only”.
This item in the yearly budget, the DMO said that is for the repayment of Principal, Interest and Other Charges for both Domestic and External Debt
The DMO added: “Funds for Debt Service are never released to the DMO for spending; rather, in line with the mandate of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), the funds are domiciled with the OAGF, who, on the advice of the DMO, effects payments directly to the creditors as at when due.”
Speaking on debt servicing, the DMO said is paid to creditors which include multilateral and bilateral lenders like the World Bank, African Development Bank, Exim Bank of China, investors in Nigeria’s Eurobonds.
Others are, “investors in securities issued in the domestic market such as FGN Bonds, SUKUK, Green Bonds and Nigerian Treasury Bills”.
Acccording to DMO, servicing of the public debt “is absolutely necessary to ensure that Nigeria remains credit-worthy and retains or improves on its sovereign rating which ultimately, will support growth and development”.
For transparency purposes, the DMO noted is why “Debt Service is expressly provided as a line item in the Annual Appropriation Acts”.
Recall that recently that the Debt Management Office (DMO) could not account for the N2.2 trillion allocation to the DMO in the 2018 Appropriation Act.
