Analysts have raised concerns over recent warnings of the Debt Management Office (DMO) at the last few days of President Mohammad Buhari’s days in office.
According to them, they have so far failed in their duty to advise the president appropriately in the last almost eight years, only for the government agency to come out as ‘dove’.
Afolabi Adewale, a former banker said, what the agency is doing smacks of attention seeking, and far from being patriotic.
According to him, this is what the agency should have done in the past to avoid the present embarrassing situation the country finds itself in now.
Currently, the country spends about 96 per cent of its total revenue in servicing debt alone, left with little or nothing to thrive.
The government is left with no option than to go to the Central Bank of Nigeria through Ways and Means to salvage the situation.
Femi Ogunleye, a business mansaid, what the DMO is doing is nothing short of ensuring the incoming government sees it as partner.
He warned that, such traced from agencies should be scrutinized in future.
Yet the DMO yesterday said that the next administration will inherit a public debt of N77 trillion if the N23 trillion loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are securitised.
The Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, made this known in a statement on Thursday.
In recent weeks, there have been heated debates on the sustainability of Nigeria’s debt amid shrinking revenue and mounting CBN loans.
Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari requested a delayed approval for the N23.7 trillion loan that had already been spent, causing an uproar in the Senate. Lawmakers rejected the request and accused the president of violating the constitution. They also demanded details of how the money was spent.
In her statement Thursday, Mrs Oniha noted that Nigeria’s total debt stock rose to N44.06 trillion as of the end of September 2022, largely reflecting the weakness of the local unit, Naira.
If securitization is achieved, a brief breakdown of the estimated total public debt stock by May 2023 may comprise of the current total public debt stock of N44.06 trillion; the Ways and Means Advances of N22.72 trillion currently under the consideration by lawmakers.”
The DMO boss added that the projected debt stock for May 2023 remains at about N5.567 trillion.
This represents about 50 per cent of the new borrowing of N11.134 trillion in the 2023 Appropriation Act; the N1 trillion Ways and Means Advances to finance the supplementary budget already approved by the lawmakers; the new Promissory Notes estimated at N1.5 trillion to be issued to settle arrears of the FGN and judgment debts; and the estimated new borrowings by subnationals for the same period.
