Nigeria Has Not Defaulted In China Loan Repayment – DMO

The Debt Management Office (DMO) has denied the claim in a report by a national daily which alleged that federal government has defaulted in debt repayment to China for which the report claims, penalties stand at N41.31 billion.

The report claimed that Nigeria has failed to fully service its debt to China, saying the loan obligation to China had accumulated to N110.31 billion in the last two years, a claim that was strongly rebutted by the debt office yesterday.

“The public is advised to ignore the publication as it is FALSE,” the DMO said in a statement that was issued in Abuja.

As at 2021, Chinese loans to Nigeria stood at $3.59 billion, which constituted only 9.4 percent of Nigeria’s total foreign debt stock of $37.9 billion.

Director-general of the debt office, Ms Patience Oniha has often allayed fears over the Chinese loans, saying they are all concessional loans, and that there is no need to be worried about them.

“They are all project-tied which I think Nigeria should be happy about,” Oniha in a previous media interview in a reaction to similar concerns by some Nigerians.

“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 DMO said.

The DMO again, assuaged concerns that Nigeria will ever renege on payment of the Chinese loans, saying the “false” information is simply an imagination of mischief makers who want to create unnecessary bad impression in the public space.

“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 dis-regarded,” the DMO stated.