The Debt Management Office (DMO) Wednesday described the publication captioned “World Bank lists Nigeria, nine others high-debt risk nations” in a national daily not Blueprint Newspapers as not only false and misleading but also suggests an inadequate understanding of the essence of the World Bank’s Report.
In a statement in Abuja, the DMO said the publication stated that the World Bank has classified Nigeria as one of the top ten (10) ‘high-debt risk nations’ in the International Development Association (IDA) Audited Financial Statement for the Fiscal Year 2021 (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021) published on Monday, August 9, 2021.
“The publication is not only false and misleading but also suggests an inadequate understanding of the essence of the World Bank’s Report. 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-emphasise that the World Bank’s Report, which was misrepresented, was 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 that the Newspaper erroneously referred to as ‘high-debt risk nations’.”
