FG paid N7.27bn for debt servicing to W’Bank, IMF – Report

The Federal Government paid the total sum of N7.27bn as instalments on loans acquired from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in February this year.

Debt Management Office had earlier revealed that the country’s total debt stock as of December, 2021 was N39.55tn.

But looking at debt servicing in one month, The Punch in a report stated that the Federal Government made a repayment of $8.21m (or N3.42bn, using the central exchange rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria, N416.09, as of February 28, 2022.

This repayment was made as a part payment on the National Social Safety Nets Project for Nigeria loan, which was approved on June 7, 2016, with a total commitment of $1bn, according to a page Washington-based lender’s website detailing World Bank-financed projects in Nigeria.

It said the loan was provided to implement targeted cash transfers to poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria.

The page read in part, “The development objective of the National Social Safety Nets Project for Nigeria is to provide access to targeted transfers to poor and vulnerable households under an expanded national social safety nets system.”

The Federal Ministry of Finance was said to be the borrower, while the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development was said to be the implementing agency for the project.

The Federal Government had earlier paid $8.32m in August last year, according to a tabular breakdown of the amount disbursed and repaid.

It quoted the National Coordinator, National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office, Mr Apera Iorwa, in an interview as saying as saying the Federal Government disbursed about $300m to the poor and vulnerable in its National Social Register through N5,000 cash transfers in four years.

He added that women made up 98 per cent of the beneficiaries of the N5,000 monthly cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

The IMF on a page titled ‘Nigeria: Transactions with the Fund, Interest and Charges Detail from January 01, 2022 To February 28, 2022’ disclosed that Nigeria paid SDR6.6m on February 4, 2022.

The SDR6.6m was N3.85, as the CBN disclosed on its website that SDR1 was N582.6 as of February 4, 2022.

The PUNCH had reported that the Federal Government of Nigeria would pay the IMF a total of $3.51bn between 2022 and 2026 to offset a $3.4bn loan.

In April 2020, the IMF disbursed $3.4bn in emergency financial assistance to Nigeria. The loan was approved under the Rapid Financing Instrument by the Executive Board of the IMF on April 28, ‎to address challenges arising from the economic impact of COVID -19 in the country.