By Francis Ogwo
About N31.4 billion owed state governments by the Federal Government is expected to be paid on February 18. This move according to reports is part of the debt servicing efforts of the government.
Information made available from the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Wednesday said the state governments will get credits worth N31,440,652,571 tomorrow when the promissory notes issued to them by the government on February 18, 2019 matures.
It was revealed also that the government had made provision to redeem its matured promissory notes in the 2021 budget.
Tomorrow, the state governments will have the option of collecting their money of “roll it over”.
The February 18, 2021 matured promissory notes have been discounted by the federal government.
State governments will receive another tranche of redeemed promissory notes valued at N5,849,212,443 on May 24, 2021.
This means the government has been borrowing from state governments using promissory notes backed by good faith.
Other redeemable promissory notes that will become due in a few months include N44,488,038,738 which the government will pay out on April 30, 2021 to government oil marketing firms.
On July 12, 2021, the Federal Government will redeem three notes to oil marketing companies that are government agencies, in the sum of N80,587,917,866, N12,221,147,926 and N12,086,954,965.
Recall that the Federal Government recently released $500 million to redeem its Eurobond which matured in January 2021.
