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The Debt Management Office (DMO) should
seek for potential sources of cheap funds for national economic growth
and development, Vice President Namadi Sambo has said.

Mr Samadi gave this charge yesterday
while chairing the meeting of the DMO supervisory board at the State
House, Abuja. “The need for potential sources of cheap funds, the
amounts available as well as the terms and conditions of such funds
which poses a challenge must be surmounted and a strategy evolved for
sourcing of funds for national growth and development,” he said,
charging the DMO to solicit the services of specialist consultants that
can assist them. The DMO is saddled with the responsibility of devising
ways of reducing Nigeria’s debt burden, exploring options of sourcing
cheaper long term capital and encouraging inflow of additional
resources. The meeting of the board also discussed a wide range of
issues ranging from staff promotion, FGN bonds for Nigerians in
Diaspora, to debt data re-structuring for states. On the issue of the
promotion of staff, the meeting advised that it should wait until the
full appraisal of staff exercise currently ongoing is completed in the
organization.

Meeting Nigerians abroad

The DMO, at a forum
organized in London earlier in the week, presented FGN bonds to
Nigerians in the United Kingdom with the aim of broadening the investor
base for the bond market. Such interaction with Nigerian professionals,
who participated at the forum, afforded the organisation the
opportunity of meeting with registered Primary Dealer Market Makers
(PDMMs). The DMO says it also intends to organize similar fora in other
countries with high concentration of Nigerians. It also said the
ongoing Debt Data Reconstruction exercise in the 36 states of the
federation is targeted at equipping the officers of the agency to
acquire sufficient skills to correctly collate and validate Domestic
Debt Data and Information from Ministries Departments and Agencies.

The Domestic Debt Data Reconstruction exercise has been carried out
in six states of the federation: Ekiti, Kaduna, Niger, Imo, Oyo and
Osun. Attendance at the meeting included the finance minister, Segun
Aganga; director-general of DMO, Abraham Nwankwo; solicitor-general,
Federal Ministry of Justice, Abdullahi Ahmed Yola; accountant-general
of the Federation, Ibrahim Dankwambo; director-general, CBN, Suleiman
Bardu; and director, DMO, A. M. Mohammed.