There is no iota of truth in a report that Nigeria was defaulting in the repayment of the loans it took from China, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said Wednesday.
Reacting to the story captioned “DMO report: Nigeria defaulting in Chinese loan repayment”, the office said Nigeria has not breached the agreement its signed with any creditor.
”Nigeria is fully committed to honouring its debt obligations and has not defaulted on any of its debt service obligations,” the DMO said in a short rebuttal.
The report being rebutted said that Nigeria had incurred a penalty of N41.31 billion for defaulting on Chinese loan used ostensibly to reactivate some of the country’s rail lines. This too was denied by the DMO.
The basis for the alleged default is linked to the spate of attacks on rail tracks and the kidnap of train passengers all of which resulted in the stoppage of train services on some routes for a while.
The loss of revenue from the stoppage of train services which is supposed to feed purse from which repayments are to be made informed the report on the alleged default.
The DMO, was however, silent on the current status of the Chinese loans to Nigeria.
The Chinese loans were used for the completion of the Idu-Kaduna section of the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project; the Lagos-Ibadan section of the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project and the Abuja Light Rail Project.
As at December 31, last year, Nigeria was owing China $4.293 billion according to the DMO.