Debt Management Office has said that Nigeria’s International Development Association’s (IDA) debt stock stands at $11.7 billion.
The DMO in a statement Wednesday, said IDA loans represent one of the most favourable borrowing options for countries like Nigeria and is also consistent with the Medium Term Debt Management Strategy of the Federal Government.
In response to claims that Nigeria is a high-debt risk nation, the DMO said the World Bank’s report “focused only on the composition of IDA’s Loan Portfolio and did not make any reference to the debt sustainability of the top 10 beneficiary countries of IDA loans, such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana that the report erroneously referred to as ‘high-debt risk nations”.
According to the DMO, “IDA loans are typically for tenors of between 30-40 years, grace period (moratorium on principal repayment) of seven-10 years and service fee of only 0.75 per cent”.
The highly concessional nature of IDA loans, the DMO added, “satisfies the requirements of the provision of Section 41(1)(a) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, which states that government at all tiers shall only borrow on concessional terms with low interest rate and with a reasonably long amortisation period”.