The Debt Management Office (DMO) says no national asset was
used as collateral for the solicitation of loans from China.
Patience Oniha, director-general of DMO, said this during an
interview with NAN on Saturday.
In recent times, both social and mainstream media have been
awash with news about some African countries, including Nigeria, facing the
threat of losing critical national assets to the Asian country owing to
high-level indebtedness.
Media reports had also claimed that Uganda has “surrendered”
its only international airport and other assets in the country to China over an
unpaid loan deal — a claim both both countries have denied.
Reacting to the reports, Oniha said the loans from China to
Nigeria were largely concessional, as no national asset was tagged as
collateral.
She also disclosed that Chinese loans which presently stood
at $3.59 billion constitutes only 9.4 percent of the Nigeria’s total foreign
debt stock of $37.9 billion.
“Nigeria’s total debt stock as at Sept. 30 was 37.9 billion
dollars, this figure comprised the external debt stock of the Federal
Government, 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory,” Oniha was
quoted as saying.
“But total loans from
China stands at 3.59 billion dollars, which is 9.47 per cent of the total
external debt. The loans did not require any national asset as collateral; they
were largely concessional.”
Oniha asked Nigerians to always endeavour to verify
sensitive information from official sources before disseminating it.
She said before foreign loans are procured, sensitive steps
are taken by multiple institutions of government to ensure that they are
beneficial to the nation.
“Before any foreign loan is contracted, including the
issuance of Eurobond, they are approved by the Federal Executive Council and
thereafter, the National Assembly,” Oniha said.
“An important and
extremely critical step is that the loan agreements are approved by the Federal
Ministry of Justice.
“An opinion is issued by the Attorney-General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice before the agreements are signed.
“Several measures which operate seamlessly have been put in
place to ensure that data on debt are available and that debt is serviced as at
when due. Provisions are made explicitly for debt service in the annual
budgets.”
The DMO chief said loan agreements provide a number of steps
to take to resolve disputes when they arise.
“The first action is
that the parties should resolve it within themselves and if that fails, they go
to arbitration,” she said.
“In other words, a lender, in this case, China, would not
just pounce on an asset at the first sign of a dispute, including defaults.’’
She said the DMO maintain proper records of debts, provide
projections for debt service and process the actual payments for debt service.
Oniha said those functions are carried out in conjunction
with the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) and the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
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