$29.9bn loan not a trap, says DMO

Dr. Abraham Nwankwo

The federal government has denied claims that the $29.9 billion loan it plans to access is a trap.

Director General of Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr Abraham Nwankwo dismissed the claims that the planned borrowing was an attempt to trap Nigeria in a web of indebtedness.

” The first thing to note is that this borrowing is normal. Normal in the sense that over the past 20 years there is no year we have not borrowed, so interpreting the proposal submitted to the National Assembly by Mr President for a three year borrowing programme to be an indirect way of trapping the country does not seem to be logical because Nigeria has always borrowed every year.”

“Every year there is a budget and if you check the budgets many years back you will see that we have been borrowing both external and domestic so there is nothing new about this. Let me also emphasize that since we exited from the Paris and London club debt in 2005-2006 we have always borrowed almost from all these sources we want to borrow from now.”