Vice President Arc Mohammed Namadi Sambo has commended the Debt Management Office (DMO) for successfully floating the one billion US dollar Euro Bond.
The Vice President gave this commendation on Friday, at the State House, Abuja, when he chaired the 14th meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Debt Management Office.
The Vice President directed the DMO to ensure that the funds realised from the Bond sale was used for specific projects meant to touch the lives of Nigerians, particularly in the areas of road and rail construction, oil and gas, power, healthcare delivery, education and agriculture.
The Vice President expressed delight over the initiative of the DMO to erect its head office, using the Public Private Partnership initiative of the Federal Government, charging the agency to expedite action so as to set example to other government agencies.
He said “I congratulate the DMO for being able to put up a building under PPP, this is the direction that government is taking. You should expedite action so that other government agencies can borrow from DMO on how to achieve government accommodation, on a Public Private Partnership basis,” adding that with this initiative “Government does not need to be spending money anymore to build offices.”
Earlier the Director-General of DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, attributed the success of the Euro Bond to the support the agency was receiving from President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Sambo. He noted that the bond was fully subscribed to. He also disclosed that the agency was making efforts to float the USD$100 million Diaspora Bond.
Dr. Nwankwo also stated that based on the directive of the Vice President that the agency explore ways of funding the building of its official headquarters, the DMO had taken up the PPP initiative, which would require zero financial contribution from Government, adding that currently the agency had gotten a no objection from the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to go ahead with the project.
According to him the engagement of the partner in the PPP initiative would be done through competitive bidding in line with government regulations.
The meeting was attended by the Accountant General of the Federation Jonah Otunla, the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Nwanze Okidegbe, Dr. Tunde Lemu, Deputy Governor, Operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria and other government functionaries.
