The House of Representatives Committee on Aids Loans and Debt Management has grilled the Director-General Debt Management Office DMO Ms Patience Oniha and other officials of the agency on the rise in domestic debts amounting to N3.3 trillion in 2023
Chairman of the House Committee Hon. Ahmed Safana and other committee members at a budget defense by DMO expressed surprise at the astronomical increase in debt profile of the country through borrowing by the government rejecting continuous borrowing.
According to the lawmaker, there is a huge increase in domestic and external debts from borrowed funds by the Nigerian federal adminstration and the Debt Management Office is entrusted with role of ensuring frequency of repayment.
He noted that there is one trillion Naira (N1trillion) increase in the debt profile of the nation in the last one year and called on the DMO as relevant agency to halt the frequency of borrowings.
According to the DG, the domestic debt profile of the country stood at N3.685 trillion and there is another N2.57 billion from external borrowing by government
She further said that the domestic debt profile of the country is rising from N3.2 trillion in 2022 to N3.3 trillion in 2023 due to high interest rate from borrowed funds from domestic and international sources of funds
She added that borrowing is a collective responsibility and there is the need for the parliament to look at borrowing of funds by the government from a macro-economic perspectives.
But the lawmakers insisted that that borrowings by government at any level must be tied to specific projects and demanded details of the N3.55 trillion earmarked for borrowing in 2023budget
At the budget session, a member of the panel Hon. Emeka Azubogu (Anambra, PDP) decried frequent borrowings while some other lawmakers demanded details of the personnel cost of the agency and the number of its employees.
Another member of the House Committee Hon. Prof Steve Azaiki (Bayelsa, PDP) advised that the federal authorities to engage consultants for them to be able to access funds from the $70 billion dollars climate change funds in the USA
In his own intervention a member of the House Committee Hon. Promise Dike (Rivers, PDP) demanded that the agency submits to the panel all the details of assets sold, payment made and outstanding debts owed to the agency under privatization.
