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The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) of the Republic of Niger has joined the Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS) community and, as of June 2024, is starting using DMFAS 6 for the management of its public debt.
The implementation of DMFAS 6 at the Public Debt Department (Direction de la Dette Publique, DDP) is part of a larger project to support the competitiveness of Niger’s economy (PACEGEF), financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The DDP was previously using a system that was no longer maintained in French, and then was recording debt information in Excel.
Installation of DMFAS 6
The first project activity took place, from 20 to 31 May 2024, during which DMFAS 6 was installed and the technical staff was trained in its maintenance.
Although the installation was carried out on Windows operating systems, the MEF’s Financial IT Directorate (Direction de l’Informatique Financière) has a strong interest in alternative operating systems. During the mission, the DMFAS IT trainer gave a presentation on the installation of DMFAS under UNIX and LINUX operating systems (e.g. HP-UX, Solaris, CentOS, Alma Linux).
Draft security procedures were developed in collaboration with the trainer, leveraging the strengths of the local database administrators. Finally, backup procedures were developed and implemented using a combination of the strategies presented during the training.
Basic training in the use of DMFAS 6
The installation mission was immediately followed by the basic functional training, that took place from 24 May to 5 June 2024. During the workshop, 8 debt debt officers were trained in the basic use of the DMFAS software. They learnt how to register loans and bonds in DMFAS and generate related reports.
The mission also assisted the DPP in creating a coding system for loans, bonds and creditors.
After the training, the DDP enthusiastically launched the work for the creation of the database, with a very dedicated and motivated team to complete the task as quickly as possible. So far, nearly 90% of Niger's external debt instruments have been registered.
Next steps
A DMFAS consultant will be deployed in Niamey to support the DDP in finalizing the public debt database. He will assist users in interpreting loan contracts and registering debt data into the system according to international standards and best practices.
Once the database is complete, the project will further provide capacity building in debt data validation, support in the preparation of a Procedures Manual, a statistical bulletin on public sector debt and a debt portfolio analysis.
A feasibility study on an IFMIS integration will also be undertaken to strengthen the data recording at the MEF.
