Nigeria taking steps to improve debt sustainability – DMO replies IMF, Agusto and Co.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) has said that Nigeria is implementing policies aimed at increasing revenues as well as developing infrastructure through Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements, both to improve debt sustainability.
Reacting to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Agusto and Co.’s position that Nigeria’s debt sustainability was causing great concern, the DMO in a statement Saturday, said that though “Debt levels and Debt Service levels have grown over the years,” the IMF and Agusto and Co.’s report did not take into consideration challenges that the country has faced in the recent past.
DMO pointed out that Nigeria has experienced “two recessions, sharp drop in Revenues and security challenges,” all of which have impacted negatively on the country’s revenues.
The statement also said that the IMF and Agusto and Co.’s verdict, delivered by IMF’s Mission Chief for Nigeria, Ms. Jesmin Rahman, during a virtual media briefing on its Nigeria’s 2021 Article IV Consultation Staff Report, did not “acknowledge the improvements in infrastructure which have been achieved through borrowing, as well as the strong measures by the Government to grow Revenues.”
Insisting that strategic steps are being taken to redress the debt sustainability situation, the DMO noted that “the Government has active and regular engagements with the IMF on borrowing and debt management.”
