By Munachimso Obienyi
The Debt Management Office (DMO) has disclosed that it has been difficult for Nigeria to borrow from the international markets as global lenders and investors are shunning countries with Category ‘B’ economic ratings.
According to the Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, Nigeria must gear up its revenue drive while looking for alternative sources of funds internationally.
“We really can’t survive like this,” she stated. Oniha, while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management to defend the DMO’s 2023 budget, noted that the Federal Government had not been able to meet its external borrowing target, noting that it was now looking at lenders in the United States and Europe.
She said, “Where there is an issue is the new external borrowings. What was provided for in the 2022 budget is N2.57tn of new external borrowings and this, in naira terms at the budget exchange rate, is $26 billion.”
“The reality is that if it were before, by now we would have issued Eurobonds to raise the money and we would be in good business. But let us say from the fourth quarter of last year, the international capital markets have not been opened to countries like Nigeria.”
