China gives three conditions to listen to Nigeria over debt discussions

Nigeria’s debt to China has increased by a staggering 209 percent under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, according to data obtained from the Debt Management Office (DMO).

As of December 2022, the country’s debt to China stood at $4.29 billion, up from $1.39 billion in June 2015, the office revealed.

The data analysis further revealed that China accounted for 84.73% of Nigeria’s bilateral debt, with the remainder coming from France, Japan, India, and Germany.

DMO also explained that China’s loans are concessional, with an interest rate of 2.50% per annum, a tenor of 20 years, and a grace period (moratorium) of seven years.

Meanwhile, China has expressed its readiness to listen to Nigeria, and other countries burdened with its debt amid pressure from the United States, International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

However, the giant Asian country has made several demands before a final decision can be reached.

Bloomberg revealed that a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry at the recent Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable in US proposed three conditions before a decision will be made.

The first is that multilateral creditors, which include World Bank and International Monetary Fund, need to come up with solutions for their participation in debt treatment as soon as possible.

Second, the IMF has to take action in information sharing on debt sustainability assessments as soon as possible. While the third condition is that the parties concerned have to agree on the specific way for creditors to participate on comparable terms as soon as possible.

He, however, failed to give a timeline for when the debt restructuring will commence.