The Debt Management Office (DMO) has debunked reports by U.S.-based financial, software, data and media company, Bloomberg, that Nigeria is planning to restructure its debt.
Bloomberg’s report had quoted Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Mrs Zainab Ahmed as saying that Nigeria had appointed consultants to advise the government as it faced a rising debt-service burden.
But the DMO in a statement on Thursday, said Bloomberg’s report was wrong because Nigeria is not considering to restructure its debt or extend the repayment period of its credit obligations.
The DMO said that the minister’s statement was taken out of context.
“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 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.
