Fifteen years of UK partnership with Nigeria on debt management: lessons for DFID’s wider approach to building capability

The quality of debt management in Nigeria has been transformed over the fifteen years under review, from a situation where debt was out of control and there was no debt management to speak of, to one where debt management is professional, the country has a reasonably well-functioning domestic government bond market, its bonds are included in major bond indexes of emerging markets, and the yield on its bonds in the Eurobond market is lower than that of a number of developed countries. International rating agencies and investment banks interviewed for this review rate Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO) as the top in Africa second only to South Africa. The DMO has also made good progress in getting a buy-in from Nigeria’s States for improved debt management.