Nigeria thanks Commonwealth for support in debt management

The Debt Management Office (DMO) in Nigeria has hailed the support it has received from the Commonwealth Secretariat in its efforts to build internal capacity to record and analyse its public debt portfolio.

Speaking to Secretariat staff in London on 18 March 2008, DMO Director-General Dr Abraham Nwankwo also said that they propose to set up debt management offices in all the country's 36 states, and would appreciate Commonwealth support in capacity-building for the success of this initiative.

“We are looking at democratising debt management system across the country so that each state in Nigeria gets a debt management system in the next five years, and this is an area where we see the Commonwealth playing a big role in supporting us,” he said.

He added: “We appreciate very much the support we have been receiving from the Secretariat over the years, and we want to be able to count on continued Commonwealth support as we move forward.”

He said that his office recognises the importance of the domestic debt market and has been working to build internal capacity to facilitate the development of this market to speed up the mobilisation of investment funds required by the public and private sectors to achieve the high growth targets that have been set by the government.

Dr Nwankwo noted that Nigeria is planning on setting up a Public Debt Management Institute to train professionals in the field for the country but will ultimately aim to export the service.

The Director of Secretariat's Special Advisory Services Division, Jose Maurel, said that the Secretariat is ready to continue supporting Nigeria to develop its competencies in debt management so that it can build a critical mass which the country would in turn be able to share with other Commonwealth member countries.

Mr Maurel added that the establishment of a Public Debt Management Institute would go a long way to plug the skills gap that currently exists in most member countries.

“There are currently not many institutions where one can go for specialised training and accreditation on debt management---so this plan by Nigeria is an interesting proposition,” he said.

Since 2005, the Secretariat has been actively involved with the DMO in Nigeria. A number of training workshops to sensitise policy-makers on best practices in public debt management and on the use of the Secretariat’s prime innovation, the debt recording and management system (CS-DRMS). Available in English and French, CS-DRMS is in use in some 54 countries within and beyond the Commonwealth, where governments are successfully using the tool to more effectively manage debt, on-lending by governments and external grants and to evaluate new borrowings in a scientific manner.

The system enables countries to record and analyse their external and domestic debt flows to the private and public sectors.

Dr Nwankwo pointed out that since Nigeria exited from the Paris Club of lenders in 2006, the country’s leadership has taken it upon itself to inculcate a culture of prudent debt management to ensure that the country does not descend back into a debt crisis. The Paris Club is an informal group of financial officials which meets to reschedule countries’ bilateral debts.

“Because of the difficulties we had to endure under the Paris Club, we would like to make sure that we do not regress.”

Key Links:

• Special Advisory Services Division
• Country Profile: Nigeria