The Debt Management Office (DMO) in a press release yesterday invalidated reports about Nigeria restructuring its debt, clarifying that Nigeria is not planning to restructure its debt.
This information is based on the disclosure the debt office made in a press statement available on its website and official Twitter account.
The announcement by the DMO is to clear up the reports by Bloomberg, our platform, and other media platforms about the statement of Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance on Nigeria’s consideration of debt restructuring.
In the press release, DMO clarified that the Minister’s statement was taken out of context, stating that the country utilizes appropriate debt management tools seeking other debt liability management tools.
What the DMO is saying
Extracts from the press statement read “Our attention has been drawn to the recent report by Bloomberg attributing statements to the Honorable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, that Nigeria is planning to restructure its debt. We wish to state that the Minister’s statement was taken out of context.”
“Over the years, Nigeria’s Debt Management Strategy has always highlighted the need to utilize appropriate debt management tools to streamline the cost and risk profile in the debt portfolio.”
“Towards implementation of these strategies, Nigeria has typically availed itself of concessional loans; the spreading out of debt maturities to avoid bunching; re-profiling of debt maturities by refinancing short-term debt using long-term debt instruments. All of these, none of which constitute debt restructuring, are already been implemented.”
‘’The Nigerian Government is also looking forward to exploring other appropriate debt liability management options, such as bond-buy back and bond exchanges.
“We want to assure local and international investors and creditors that Nigeria remains committed and will meet all its debt obligations.’’
In case you missed
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Yesterday, October 13, 2022, several platforms including ours reported that Zainab Ahmed, Finance Minister, disclosed that Nigeria was working on restructuring its debt as it is confronted with the rising debt-service burden. She signaled that the country has been engaging financial institutions to look at the opportunity to restructure our debt to further stretch the debt service period to give us more fiscal relief. Those are some of the things we want to achieve in this meeting.
She said the government is also planning to extend the repayment period of its credit obligations and wants to refinance domestic debt obligations that are due this year and next, noting that the government has engaged the services of consultants for advice.
