1. This department is responsible for registry, control, payment, and accounting of both domestic and foreign debts. It handles the settlement of transactions and the maintenance of their related financial records. It registers and tracks such special accounts as cross-enterprise debts, contractor/supplier debts (arrears), grants, guarantees and indemnities, private non-guaranteed debts; and on-lending agreements. It also produces basic debt statistics for further processing by the Policy, Strategy, & Risk Management Department.
2. The department centralizes all the operations related to the registration, monitoring and control of disbursements/subscriptions, execution and management of public debt service operations, registration of the operations of public debt and production of debt data. Its functions therefore comprise the administration of the full cycle of the life of a contract/instrument, from its signature/issuance to its full payment. Failure to properly perform these functions (such as delays in debt service, improper registration of debt contracts, maintenance of inexact and non updated debt information, etc) will affect the accuracy of the information generated by the DMO and will have costly implications for the government.
3. The need to attain efficiency and effectiveness in the activities of the back office underscore the reason for automating the entire processes of the Debt Registration and Settlement Department through computerization using CSDRMS. This utility can be further enhanced by extending the usage of the CSDRMS to the ‘middle’ and ‘front’ offices in order to achieve accuracy and timeliness of information on public debt, which is crucial for effective debt management. The potential for this exists within the context of the current operations of and the tools being employed by the DMO (view in pdf). This initiative should be supported by the development of internal controls and guidelines for data validation to avoid discrepancies in loan transactions and to permit a sound database and accurate and timely servicing of the debts.
4. The Department is responsible for managing records of debt holders and for the registration of government debt instruments. Its functions include the forecasting debt service payments for domestic external debt to enable the DMO raise the necessary mandate for its payment from the OAGF and for its externalization by the CBN.
5. It also has the responsibility for tracking, registering, and closely monitoring Grants, on-lending, guaranteed debt and contingent liabilities, as well as private non-guaranteed debts, cross-enterprise debts, contractor/supplier debts (arrears), and Sub-national debts and those of their agencies.
6. It ensures that budgetary provisions are sufficiently made to cover debt service and redemption, including provisions for contingent liabilities.

Departmental Structure

1. The back office performs the basic functions that permit all other public debt operational functions to be carried out. Other departments rely on the data it captures. The functions of the department, like those of other departments, need to be regulated by a Procedures Manual that describes the flow of information in the operative cycle.