FG recovers N49.7bn out of N5.2trn debt – Finance Minister

THE Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said the Federal Government has succeeded in recovering N49.7bn out of its N5.2tn debt.

Ahmed disclosed this yesterday while speaking to State House correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Explaining how the recovery was made, the minister attributed the success to the council’s approval for the second phase of Project Lighthouse.

Project Lighthouse is a component that is meant to expand the debt recovery capability of the project.

According to the minister, Project Lighthouse, is a data engine that collects, integrates and analyses data from revenue generating agencies in order to create insightful information for improved decision-making.

She said Messrs Carter House Consulting, a Nigerian technology company, which had worked with the ministry for three years, won the first phase of the contract in May 2019. The second phase that was approved on Wednesday was in the sum of N316.5m.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said the council approved contract for the provision of Airport Management Solution for the international airports in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu in the sum of N10,594,057,618.20 inclusive of 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax.

For the Ministry of Transportation, the council approved contract for the design, manufacture, supply testing and commissioning of one modular tamping machine in the sum of N639,150,932 for the use of the Nigerian Railway Corporation.

It also approved the award of contract for the procurement of one rig-stacker in the sum of N247,062,708 for the benefit of the National Inland Waterway Authority; contract for two power cars to be used on the narrow gauge by the NRC in sum of N1.66bn; and contract for the removal of wrecks along the Badagry Creek from Tin Can Island to Navy Town Lagos State in the sum of N3,587,955,266.40 for the benefit the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.

The National Bureau of Statistics had in January put Nigeria’s total public debt portfolio as at Dec. 31, 2020, at N32.92 trillion,

It made the revelation in its Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt report for Quarter Four, 2020, on its website.

It added that the debt profile was for the States and the Federal Government.

According to the bureau, Nigeria’s total public debt showed that N12.71 trillion or 38.60 per cent of the debt was external, while N20.21 trillion or 61.40 per cent of the debt was domestic.

“Further disaggregation of Nigeria’s foreign debt showed that 17.93 billion dollars of the debt was multilateral, 4.06 billion dollars was bilateral from the African Development Bank (AfDB), Exim Bank of China, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), India and KFW.

“Meanwhile, 11.17 billion dollars was commercial which are Eurobonds and Diaspora Bonds and 186.70 million dollars as Promissory notes.”

The report said that the total States and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) domestic debt was put at N4.19 trillion with Lagos State accounting for 12.15 per cent of the debt stock.

It added that Jigawa had the least debt stock in this category with a contribution of 0.74 per cent.