DMO takes FGN securities issuance awareness to citizens

The Debt Management Office (DMO), on Thursday assured Nigerians of returns on their investments in the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Securities.

To this end, it said it would hold an awareness programme in Umuahia on the need for people of the area to key into FGN Securities Issuance.

Saying that this is the sixth in the series, as the DMO had in recent times taken the awareness programme to Lagos, Enugu, Ibadan, Kano and Yola.

According to Patience Oniha, the Director-General of DMO, the programme is initiated to intimate ordinary Nigerians with workings of the DMO and the lucrative investment opportunities in the various FGN security instruments.

Oniha said that the objective was to ensure that many more Nigerians became aware of the huge investment opportunities so they could take advantage of them.

“The purpose of the awareness.is to introduce DMO to the people. The Nigerian people are a very important set of stakeholders we must engage.

“Also, we have to educate the general public about the various products that we offer. We are talking of investment products similar to shares, but this is the other side of shares.

“The needs of government are growing and becoming different, so, we need to get more stakeholders involved in what we are doing,” she said.

Oniha said that the idea of getting more Nigerians to invest in government securities was to also promote and encourage financial inclusion.

“We do not want anybody outside of the banking system as much as possible. We want to encourage financial inclusion.

“It is good to keep bank accounts, but it is also good to get actively involved in the financial market, either by buying shares or bonds,” she said.

According to her, the various FGN securities constitute the local component of government borrowings which go into providing some critical needs of the citizens.

She said that by investing in them, citizens were contributing to nation building and assisting the government to meet its financial obligations.

She described the DMO as a government agency saddled with the responsibility of managing the nation’s public debt portfolio.

“In carrying out that responsibility, the DMO also has the responsibility of issuing FGN Securities which offer good investment opportunities for the citizenry.

“Apart from the advantages that investors get, it is also an act of patriotism. It is a way of contributing your quota to the development of Nigeria,’’ she said. (NAN)