Debt Mgt Office slams Bloomberg for allegedly misquoting Finance Minister on Nigeria’s debt profile

Nigeria has no plans to restructure its debt, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO), in contradiction to reports by the American financial, software, data, and media corporation Bloomberg.

In reaction to a recent Bloomberg story that Nigeria was considering restructuring its debt and extending the deadline for fulfilling its loan commitments, the DMO said this on Thursday.
According to Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s finance minister, the country has engaged consultants to assist the government in managing a rising burden of debt payments.

The DMO asserted that the statements of the minister were distorted.

It further claimed that “Over the years, Nigeria’s Debt Management Strategy has always highlighted the need to utilise appropriate debt management tools to streamline the cost and risk profile in the debt portfolio.

“Toward implementation of these strategies, Nigeria has typically availed itself of concessional loans, the spreading out of debt maturities to avoid bounching, and re-profiling of debt maturities by refinancing short-term debt using long-term debt instruments.

“All these, non of which constitute debt restructuring, are already being implemented ” the DMO said.

It alsp said that the Nigerian government was 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, ” the DMO said.