The Debt Management Office (DMO) has revealed that the outstanding amount of $700 million in the federal government’s external borrowing programme is expected to be borrowed from multilateral sources.
The debt office revealed this in a statement yesterday.
According to the DMO, this amount was consistent with the provision for New Borrowing in the 2017 Appropriation Act.
“The DMO also raised $2.8 billion in the International Capital Market through a $300 million Diaspora Bond in June 2017 and a $2.5 billion Eurobond in November 2017 which together represent about 80 per cent of the N1.0675 trillion (about USD3.5 billion) provided as New External Borrowing in the 2017 Appropriation Act. The outstanding amount of USD700 million in External Borrowing is expected from multilateral sources,” it added.
The debt office also revealed that the federal government has so far released a total of N1.2 trillion to finance capital projects in the 2017 Appropriation Act.
It noted that given that the 2017 Budget was finalised in July 2017, the disbursement of N1.2 trillion over a short period of six months to capital, “is a strong and positive development in Nigeria.”
Furthermore, the debt office stated that the release of such amount for capital was a strong demonstration of the commitment of the present administration to prioritise improvement in infrastructure in order to stimulate economic growth and development.
“Since the 2017 Budget is still being implemented, more releases to capital are expected,” it pledged.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun last month also said the federal government had released N1.2 trillion to ministries,departments and agencies (MDAs) of government for implementation of capital projects contained in the 2017 budget.
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