The Debt Management Office of Nigeria (DMO) has vehemently denied the rumour making the rounds that it was unable to account for the sum of N2.2 trillion allocated to its office in the 2018 Appropriation Act.

The agency in a recent disclosure available on its website described the claims as not only false but extremely misleading.

It is pertinent to note that the rumours became rife, after DMO honoured an invitation by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives, to explain how it spent the sum of N2.2 trillion provided in the 2018 Act. The DMO appeared before the aforementioned committee on the 26th of February, 2021.

Clarifying the issue, the DMO explained that of the N2.2 trillion provided in the 2018 Act; only the sum of N721, 251,798.00 was appropriated to its agency, while the remaining N2.1 trillion was earmarked for Debt Service. In lieu of this, the DMO emphasized that the appropriated sum of ₦2.2 trillion was not available as the DMO’s total allocation.

What they are saying

Commenting on the issue, a part of the press release reads: ‘’ The DMO wishes to emphasize that the provisions in the Annual Appropriation Acts for Debt Service, including the 2018 Appropriation Act, are dedicated for Debt Service payments only; that is, for the repayment of Principal, Interest and Other Charges for both Domestic and External Debt.

“Indeed, the 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. Such creditors include multilateral and bilateral lenders like the World Bank, African Development Bank, Exim Bank of China, investors in Nigeria’s Eurobonds, as well as, investors in securities issued in the domestic market such as FGN Bonds, SUKUK, Green Bonds and Nigerian Treasury Bills.”

It also went further to justify the need for Debt Servicing, emphasizing that: “The general public is invited to note that 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. It is for this reason as well as transparency purposes, that Debt Service is expressly provided as a line item in the Annual Appropriation Acts.’’

What you should know

• The 2018 Appropriation Act authorized the Federal Government of Nigeria to withdraw a total sum of N9, 120,334,988,225 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, in a bid to meet expenditure requirement in the 2018 fiscal year.
• A breakdown of the 2018 Act showed that; N3,512,677,902,077 was earmarked for recurrent expenditure, N2,873,400,351,825 (capital expenditure), 2,203,835,365,699 (Debt Service and DMO’s allocation) and N530,421,368,624 (Statutory transfers).