JONATHAN INAUGURATES, CHARGES DMO SUPERVISORY BOARD TO MAINTAIN NATIONAL DEBT PROFILE

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday inaugurated the Supervisory Board of the Debt Management Office (DMO) chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

The president challenged the board to evolve a framework for effective mobilisation of the nation's financial resources while maintaining the country's public debt profile at sustainable level.

The board is expected to review the economic and political impact of both domestic and external debt management strategies, among other functions.

Other members of the supervisory board of the DMO are Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister on the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Muhammed Bello Adoke; Chief Economic Adviser to the president, Nwanze Okidegbe; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; Accountant General of the Federation, Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla and Director General of DMO, Bright Okogwu who doubles as secretary of the board.

Jonathan expressed the confidence that the board was capable of charting new policy initiatives in public debt management necessary for the accomplishment in the transformation agenda of the government.

'This is particularly important because of the challenged posed by the current sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the United States of America which appears to threaten the global economy in general in emerging economies like Nigeria in particular,' he said.

In his remarks, Vice President Sambo said the board members were in tune with current global economic realities and would come up with the right framework on the nation's debt portfolio and how to manage both internal and external debt profiles.'We are resolved to ensure that the DMO gets all the necessary guidance and the support it requires to attain this outlined mandate,' the vice president said.