The Federal Government, via the Debt Management Office, has attributed the recent delay in coupon payments to savings bond subscribers to system and processing challenges.
Bloomberg reports that the first coupon payment on the two-year and three-year debt instruments, through which the government raised N4.2 billion in June, was due on Sept. 12 but has remained unpaid.
Reports showed that this marks the second consecutive delay in fulfilling obligations on a savings bond, according to investors.
Reacting to the development, Patience Oniha, the Director General DMO attributed the delay to a “system, process issue,” which is “being addressed.”
“I expect an outcome today,” she said in a response to Bloomberg’s question on Friday.
It added that subscribers to other savings bonds said there was a week delay in coupon payments due in August, the first time they experienced a hold-up since the introduction of the instruments seven years ago.
When contacted for further explanation, the DMO’s Head of Publicity, Hannah Momodu, said: “Sincerely, we are experiencing major system and processing issues which have affected payments this month.
While we have been able to process some payments to subscribers, it’s unfortunately being done in batches due to the system challenges we are actively working to resolve.
We are making every effort to have all network and processing issues fully sorted out today (Friday).”
Coupon payments are scheduled to occur quarterly on the 12th of September, December, March, and June.
The savings bond introduced in 2017 aimed to diversify Nigeria’s borrowing sources and offer retail investors an opportunity to earn income by investing in government securities.
The main goal of these bond offers is to generate significant capital to support the government’s fiscal policies and infrastructure development initiatives.
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