The clarification by the Debt Management Office on listing of Nigeria as a high-debt risk nation and the plight of Nigerian youths as the world observes International Youth Day today are some of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Vanguard reports that the Debt Management Office (DMO) yesterday, flayed media reports listing Nigeria as a “high-debt risk nation.”
The agency said such publications claiming that the classification came from the International Development Association (IDA) Audited Financial Statement for the Fiscal Year 2021 (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021) were a misinterpretation of the report.
DMO stated: “The World Bank’s report was an assessment of the performance of IDA and not the performance of the IDA loans nor the debt repayment capacity of the beneficiaries of IDA loans.
“By way of explanation, the World Bank, through IDA, gives concessional loans to poor and developing countries to help them achieve improvements in growth, job creation, poverty reduction, governance, the environment, climate adaptation and resilience, human capital, infrastructure, and debt transparency. Nigeria is a beneficiary of IDA loans.
“It is important to re-emphasize that the World Bank’s report, which was misrepresented, focused only on the composition of IDA’s Loan Portfolio and did not make any reference to the debt sustainability of the top ten (10) beneficiary countries of IDA loans, such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana.
“IDA loans are typically for tenors of 30 – 40 years, grace period (moratorium on principal repayment) of 7 – 10 years and service fee of only 0.75%.”
