DMO: N400bn injected into the economy to service debt

Patience Oniha, director-general, Debt Management Office (DMO),  says the federal government has injected N400bn into the economy to service its debt and improve liquidity.

Oniha, who spoke in Lagos, said the fund was government’s strategy to reduce its debt profile and reduce interest rate on government’s lending from 18 per cent to 14 per cent.

She said this would improve the ability of financial institutions to lend to the real sector.

She, however, wondered why the benefits of government’s reduced borrowing through the funds released from December till date were not reflecting in increased funding to the real sector.

Oniha said there is an urgent need for reforms on population, infrastructure development, and scaling up actions to meet the expectations of the citizens.

Also speaking, Tony Okpanachi, managing director, Development Bank (DB), said the bank would collaborate with financial institutions to work out modalities to finance new entrepreneurs.

Okpanachi promised that the bank would provide more funds to bridge the gap of long term financing for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to create more jobs.