Edun tasks new AMCON board on improved debt recoveries - ITREALMS

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The Finance Minister and coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Olawale Edun, has tasked the new board of directors of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to speed up debt recoveries, reports ITREALMS.

The minister gave the charge on Wednesday in Abuja during the Inauguration of the New Board of AMCON. The new board is chaired by Dr Bala Mohammed Bello. The Non-Executive Directors are Yusuf Tegina, Adeyemo Adeoye, Charles Odion Iyiore, Yahaya Ibrahim, and Emily Chidinma Osuji.

N4.6trn debt: AMCON, AMPs strategize to intensify recovery - ITREALMS

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The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), under the leadership of MD/CEO Mr. Gbenga Alade, convened an interactive session in Abuja to reinforce its strategy for recovering over N4.6 trillion in outstanding debts. AMCON aims to deepen collaboration with stakeholders, particularly the Asset Management Partners (AMPs) established in 2016.

During the session, Executive Director of Resolution, Mr. Adeshola Lamidi, emphasized a new era of proactive debt recovery. He assured AMPs of a strengthened, mutually beneficial partnership to enhance recovery strategies and ensure efficient execution of their national mandate. 

USSD code debt: Zenith, Fidelity, UBA, Sterling, 5 others may be disconnected - ITREALMS

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A total of nine banks may be disconnected before end of this month due to unpaid debt arising from deployment of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Codes with Zenith, Fidelity, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Sterling Bank leading the list, reports ITREALMS.

Other financial institutions that may be affected include First City Monument Bank, Jaiz Bank Plc, Polaris Bank Limited, Unity Bank Plc, and Wema Bank Plc.

Debt Profile: Data by DMO validates Osun’s success on debt management - ITREALMS

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The Spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Mallam Olawale Rasheed has said that data released by Debt Management Office has vindicated the Adeleke led administration on the debt profile of the state.

He added that as against the falsehood published by certain online news platforms and amplified by the All Progressives Congress (APC), State External Debt according to the DMO has reduced by 15% while Domestic Debt reduced by 42%.

Finally, Glo, MTN resolve interconnect debt dispute - ITREALMS

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Finally, finally, the pre-disconnection notice between Glo and MTN over interconnection debt dispute has been resolved, reports ITREALMS.

Confirming this development, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) through its Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Reuben Muoka, informed ITREALMS that the commission was pleased to announce that the interconnect debt dispute between MTN Nigeria Communications Plc. (MTN) and Globacom Limited (Globacom) has been amicably resolved.

Nigeria: Tizeti secures debt financing to expand internet access - ITREALMS

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The Chapel Hill Denham’s Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF) has agreed to provide long-term financing to Tizeti Network Limited (Tizeti) reports ITREALMS.

Tizetti, ITREALMS gathered is the West Africa’s pioneer solar-based internet service provider, while the senior debt facility will be used to finance the rollout of Tizeti’s state-of-the art broadband network across 15 states in Nigeria.

Osun Salary debt: Adeleke approves another tranche - ITREALMS

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The Osun state, Governor Ademola Adeleke has approved the payment of another batch of half salary debt alongside the state workers' July salary, reports ITREALMS.

A press statement available to ITREALMS by the spokesperson to the State Governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, noted that the fresh payment makes it the third batch the Governor will pay the half salary debt in line with the template issued early this year to pay the debt on a quarterly basis.

The administration has paid that of the first and second quarters while workers will receive the third quarter payment alongside their July salary.

Governor Adeleke had during the electioneering campaign promised to pay the salary debt on installments basis. The administration had inherited about 26 billion naira in half salary debt and about 50 billion naira in pension related debt from the previous government.

Commenting on the approval, the Governor restated his commitment to the faithful implementation of the template for the payment of the inherited salary debt, adding that the template is a consensus among all stakeholders on how to exit the half salary rope.

"I want to assure Osun workers that the payment is progressing as scheduled. Despite the tight fiscal situation, we are prioritising workers welfare by paying the inherited debt on installment basis.

"As a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we will remain focused on human development even as we work to upgrade our infrastructure and develop our local economy," the Governor noted.

N120bn USSD debt: ALTON approves disconnection of banks - ITREALMS

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The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) is spoiling for war over some N120n billion debt arising from the use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) by Nigerian banks, reports ITREALMS.

USSD, ITREALMS gathered also referred to as 'quick codes' or 'feature codes,' is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator's computers.

@LSE: Nwankwo advises African countries on economic transformation via debt financing

ITREALMS:

The immediate past Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO) in Nigeria, Dr Abraham Nwankwo, has admonished African leaders to initiate robust macroeconomic, transformation plans to drive debt-financed sustainable economic growth and prosperity, reports ITRealms.

Speaking on the topic “Sapping Africa’s Debt Financing Strategy: Removing Some Mental Cobwebs”, at the Fourth London Stock Exchange LSEG Africa Advisory Group (LAAG) Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Nwankwo said such a transformation plan is needed as a formal policy document, “narrating how debt financing will be applied to launch economy unto a trajectory of self-sustaining prosperity; with credible macroeconomic figures at the beginning, intermediate and concluding stages: GDP figures, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, reserve position, etc.”

Nwankwo, who holds a PhD in economics, said Debt Financing, particularly external debt financing from the international capital market, appears to be the most predictable source for financing and refinancing Africa’s economic and social transformation over the next decade.

However, he stated that the real job for governments, particularly officials in charge of planning, finance and central banking is “to demonstrate with detailed credible macroeconomic plan, how this prospect can be safely actualized.”

He stressed that many African countries have failed to initiate credible transformation plan thereby squandering the opportunity to grow their economies through debt financing. “The government may be keen on debt financing but lazy to articulate a credible implementation plan, with macroeconomic deliverables, around debt financing.”

Added to this intellectual laziness on the part of economic planners is also what he called the “Rigid, non-imaginative advice from the IMF in particular, which encourages policy timidity, instead of planned boldness.”

He said the IMF usually relies on past and present deficiencies to preach against the possibility of future progress instead of focusing on how to cage or degrade those deficiencies to create a new trajectory of efficiency and prosperity.

He said: “Much of IMF advice on Africa’s debt financing misleads countries to commit what I first referred to in a 2017 publication as the “sin-of-avoiding-a-sin’(SAS)”

He further stressed that African countries would continue to rely on debt financing from the international capital market due to acute fiscal constraints, huge infrastructure deficit and huge reserves of exploitable opportunities in agriculture and agro-processing, manufacturing, solid minerals, tourism and other sectors.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Court Judgement: NLNG requests $315m debt from NIMASA

ITREALMS:

The management of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) has formally applied for the sum of $315,598,823.29, the judgment debt to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), reports ITRealms.

This follows the recent judgement on October 3, 2017 by the Federal High Court in Lagos in favour of NLNG and against NIMASA, and that all such payments already made by NLNG to NIMASA should be refunded immediately.

The sum, ITRealms reports, represents the payments made under protest to NIMASA by NLNG since 2013, via direct and shipping losses incurred by NLNG due to the initial 2-day blockade of the Bonny Channel by NIMASA in May 2013.

The Court Presided over by Hon. Justice M. B. Idris had held that NIMASA was wrong in blocking the Bonny Channel for the purpose of enforcing the payments against NLNG.

Commenting on the development, General Manager External Relations of NLNG, Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke described the Federal High Court ruling transcending above simply but legal victory for NLNG.

“It must be viewed for what it really is: A resounding message from Nigeria to the global investment community. The message is that we can be trusted to keep our sovereign word and that Nigeria remains open for business, partnership and investments,” he said.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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FG unveils new Debt Management Strategy

PR@ITRealms:

The Federal Government has unveiled a new debt management strategy to run from 2016 – 2019 with a marginal increase in external borrowing, increased commitment to capital projects execution and long as against short term borrowing.  

The Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, revealed the three year debt management strategy at a press briefing on Monday in Abuja.

According to Nwankwo, the new Debt Management Strategy approved by the Federal Executive Council last Wednesday, is aimed at economy recovery and diversification.

The DMO boss explained that the focus of the new initiative is to develop a debt management strategy that would ensure that in the face of macroeconomic and other financial constraints, the cost and risk profile of the public debt portfolio remains within acceptable limit over time.

He reiterated that the new Debt Management Strategy is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision to generate maximum employment, reduce poverty and increase the living standard of Nigerians.

Dr. Nwankwo further stated that for this to be effectively achieved, the government is making positive efforts in diversifying the economy as against the backdrop of structural collapse in oil prices and oil revenue.

“The Debt Management Strategy we are going to pursue over the next four years, takes into account the fact that for now Nigeria’s public debt portfolio is dominated by domestic debt.

“After the Paris and London Club exits between 2004 and 2006, the country took a deliberate decision to develop its domestic bond market and to do most of the public borrowing from domestic sources so as to develop the domestic bond market, that objective has been sufficiently achieved.

“And therefore taking into account that external financing sources are on the average cheaper than domestic sources, it becomes more necessary to slant more of the borrowing in favour of external sources.

“Therefore one of the major elements of this strategy is that over the medium, term we will strive to remix the public debt portfolio from 84 per cent domestic and 16 per cent external to 60 per cent domestic and 40 per cent external.

“In addition taking into account other factors, the fact that over the next four years public borrowing proceeds will be devoted to capital expenditure an element of the strategy is to ensure that we remix the current status of about 31 percent short-term and 69 percent long-term to a maximum of short-term 25 per cent and the minimum of long-term 75 per cent.

“So we are remixing between external and domestic and we are also remixing within the domestic, between short and long-term.”

Justifying the  decision to remix in favour of external debt, he said the country will be able to achieve cheaper cost of funds, lower debt servicing and avoid the risk of crowding out the private sector from accessing the domestic market, adding that the private sector is still expected to play the lead role to compliment government’s effort.

While dismissing concerns on government’s decision to focus on external borrowing in a country currently facing foreign exchange constraints and harsh macroeconomic environment, he stressed that the new strategy is the best for the Nigerian economy as the government is presently making sustained efforts on diversifying the economy, noting that in the next 5-7 years export proceeds accrued to the economy will be more and our exchange rate will be favourable.

While encouraging Nigerians that the future will be sustainable, the DMO boss further stated that the citizens should take advantage of the current challenges as a stepping stone to actualize their vision and achieve their dreams.

“One of the questions that will naturally arise and which many of you have asked us, has to do with the challenge of foreign exchange constraints,” Nwankwo said.

“At this point in time our exchange rate is not very favourable and our reserves are not as buoyant as they used to be and people are raising the question while would you go for external borrowing when you have foreign exchange constraints.

“However a closer look at the issue shows that the strategy the government has chosen is still the optimum strategy and the secret to arriving at that conclusion is simply to differentiate between a short-term static situation and a long-term dynamic situation.

“Of course if we are simply focused on the challenges we have currently there will be undue concerns about our ability to service external debt, however if you take into account that everything we are doing now are for the purpose of diversifying our economy in a sustained manner, so that in the next 5-7 years we will be exporting a variety of processed and primary products.

 “We have all it takes in terms of variety of opportunities in agriculture and in solid mineral for example.

“The efforts being made by the government and private sector is to ensure that many of the products we now import will be provided locally, such as rice, sugar, flower, wheat, fruit juice, we can produce in abundance to satisfy our domestic needs and also have surplus to export.

“Then you will appreciate that in the next 5-7 years with Nigerians working hard and in a focused manner there is no doubt that our exchange rate should be more favourable as the years go by and our reserve will be more buoyant.

“So thinking in term of medium to long-term is a strategy is about right, because we are not bugged down by our current decision, rather we are inspired by where we must be.”

Nwankwo was upbeat that in the next few years there will be significant improvement in employment generation, poverty reduction and living standard of the people, adding that as part of the new strategy, the DMO will develop new products particularly the federal government saving bond and also diversify the sources of raising funds domestically.

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Senate backs DMO, says strong advocacy to boost debt management

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The Senate has stressed that with more advocacy on the issue of debt management and servicing, Nigerians will be better placed to lend their support to government’s effort in raising funds from the capital and bonds’ market for development purposes.

The chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senater Shehu Sani, made this known at a three-day retreat organised for members of the committee by the Debt Management Office in Minna, Niger State on Thursday.

Sani said that if there was aggressive advocacy on what such debts were taken for, Nigerians would support such initiative aimed at driving development and engendering development.

According to him, it was imperative for the DMO to develop a framework in the major languages in the country to get the citizens to understand why debts are taken, for what purpose and what the society stands to benefit from such borrowing.

“There is need for strategy mix anchored on proper advocacy on what debt management is all about. Nigerians want to know why governments borrow, to what purpose such debts are taken and I can say that once it is well explained, the people will key into the programme.

“I therefore hope that the DMO will rev up its advocacy especially in the major languages because a whole lot of Nigerians don’t seem to understand why their states governments will take loans and they cannot see why the loan was taken in the first instance.”

Speaking further, Sani said “debt is a veritable tool for economic growth and development if properly managed. I also believe that an effective debt management that emphasizes transparency due process, and fiscal discipline can precipitate a turnaround in the economy.”

According to him, the Senate will look at the DMO Act to amend it to meet the realities of the present economic situation, noting that the legislature should be involved in the negotiations of loans as it will not only enhance their capacity but offer a clear insight into the terms and conditions of such loans.

Also, a member of the committee, Senator Sani Yerima, said there was need for greater collaboration between the National Assembly and the executive so that Nigerians can stand to reap the benefits of borrowed funds.

Yerima said loans help to fast track development, employment generation and helps government to bridge the funding gap but decried a situation of arbitrary borrowing by states without a ceiling.

“As governor we had caps to what we could borrow. But today states borrow arbitrarily and leave debts that will be repaid for the next 3- to 40 years. The National Assembly will work closely with the DMO to develop a framework on this matter,” he said.

In his remarks, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, Director General of the DMO, said the workshop with the theme; Processes and Procedures for External and Domestic Borrowing and Settlement, has become imperative given the funding of the 2016 budget from loans.

According to Nwankwo, the federal government does not just borrow for borrowing sake but to address the challenge of development and infrastructure growth.

He explained that the workshop is to not only keep the lawmakers abreast of developments in the Nigerian debt sector but to get their buy-ins in the DMO’s drive to seek for funding from the capital market.

The DMO boss also said that states have not been barred from raising funds rather that the National Economic Council was against borrowing from commercial banks but supports states seeking for capital from bonds, which is cheaper and more sustainable in the long run. 

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