Nigeria didn’t hide borrowing plan, fails World Bank disclosure rule – DMO

The Debt Management Office (DMO) has refuted news about Nigeria regarding the World Bank Disclosure Rule and borrowing loans, its Director-General, Patience Oniha issued a rebuttal on Thursday.

The DMO said it was not true that the World Bank blamed Nigeria on the disclosure rule.

Media reports accuse the Nigerian government of failing to publish its Annual Borrowing Plans (ABP).

But the DMO said the country observes the principle of transparency in public debt.

The office said its website contains information on public debt, debt by source, instrument, maturity, management strategy and sustainability analysis.

The statement noted that Nigeria’s annual borrowing plans were usually contained in the annual budgets.

“The total borrowings are listed in three categories – new domestic borrowings; new external borrowings and draw down bilateral and multilateral loans.

“The public debt stock is published quarterly on the DMO’s website. This is supported by periodic physical and virtual media briefing sessions”, it reads.

The office added that borrowing instruments for external and internal debts are also published in the quarterly debt reports and annual reports.

At the end of 2021, the DMO put the nation’s total debt stock at N39.6trillion. It increased to N41.6trillion as of March 31, 2022.