DMO: Nigeria Has Not Defaulted in Debt Repayment to China

•$1.38bn paid as interest on foreign loans in 2022 

•FG, states, LGs share N714.629bn March revenue

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

The Debt Management Office (DMO) has debunked a media report that Nigeria had defaulted in its debt repayment to China for which the purported “penalties stand at N41.31 billion.”

According to the report, Nigeria failed to service its debt to China which had accumulated to N110.31 billion in the last two years, adding that from January 2021 to December 2022, the principal fee stood at N69, 009,417,500 ($153.85million), while the interest charges amounted to the sum of N41, 311,455,000 ($92.1 million).

However, the DMO in a rebuttal via an official statement made available to THISDAY yesterday, said its attention was drawn to the publication.

While advising the public to ignore the story, the DMO noted that a closer look at the publication showed that the body of the report was completely detached from the headline.

“The public is advised to ignore the publication as it is false. A closer look at the media publication shows that the body of the publication is completely detached from the headline which gives the impression that the publishers of the report may have set out to mislead the public.

“The public is assured that Nigeria is fully committed to honouring its debt obligations and has not defaulted on any of its debt service obligations.

“The media report should therefore be disregarded,” the DMO admonished.

Meanwhile, interest payments on foreign loans grossed $1.384 billion ($1.384,755,373.26) between January and December 2022.

The amount was expended as interest accruing to multilateral and bilateral as well as commercial loans (Eurobonds).

While multilateral loans which are largely concessionary in nature accounted for $113.23 million of the interest payment, bilateral and commercial took the larger chunk.

In another development, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) yesterday shared a total sum of N714.629 billion March Federation Account Revenue to the federal, states and local governments.  

Citing a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting for April, the Director (Press and Public Relations), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Bawa Mokwa, said the N714.629 billion total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of N497.448 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N202.693 billion and Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) of N14.488 billion.

Total deductions for cost of collection stood at N31.355 billion while total deductions for transfers, refunds and consultancy fees amounted to N126.567 billion.

From the total distributable revenue of N714.629 billion, the federal government received N276.141 billion, states got N232.129 billion, while the local government councils received N171.257 billion.

A total sum of N35.102 billion was shared to the relevant states as 13 per cent derivation revenue.

According to the communique, gross statutory revenue of N638.673 billion was received for March 2023, N151.567 billion higher than the sum of N487.106 billion received in the previous month.

From the N497.448 billion distributable statutory revenue, the federal government received N243.564 billion, states received N123.539 billion and the local governments got N95.243 billion.

The sum of N35.102 billion was shared to the relevant states as 13 per cent derivation revenue. 

For March 2023, the gross revenue available from the Value Added Tax (VAT) was N218.786 billion, N22.013 billion lower than the N240.799 billion available in the preceding month of February.

The federal government received N30.404 billion, the state governments received N101.347 billion while the local government councils received N70.943 billion from the N202.693 billion distributable VAT revenue.

In the same vein, the N14.488 billion Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) was shared, with the federal, states and local governments receiving N2.173 billion, N7.244 billion and N5.071 billion respectively.

According to the communiqué, in March 2023, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT), Oil and Gas Royalties, Import and Excise Duties, Electronic Money Transfer Levy(EMTL) increased remarkably while VAT decreased considerably.

The balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) stood at $473,754.57 as of April 19, 2023.