The Federal Government has directed the Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr Abraham Nwankwo to ensure that the one billion US dollar realized from Euro Bond recently floated judiciously spent.
Vice President Namadi sambo who gave the charge Friday specifically, said the funds should be used to execute projects that will touch the lives of Nigerians, particularly in the areas of road and rail construction, oil and gas, power, healthcare delivery, education and agriculture.
Sambo was speaking yesterday at the State House, Abuja, when he chaired the 14th meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Debt Management Office.
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.”
Speaking earlier, the Director-General of DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, had 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.
