a. The characteristics of National Chart of Accounts (NCOA) are as follows:
(i) The NCOA was designed after due consultations with all the local government councils, states and Federal Government of Nigeria in consideration with their peculiar needs;
(ii) It must be expandable/flexible;
(iii) Each item has a unique code;
(iv) It is used for both and accounting;
(v) It must comply with IPSAS cbudgeting ash and accrual basis;
vi) It must comply with Government Financial Statistics(GFS)2001; and
(vii) It must be in compliance with Classification by Functions of Government (COFOG).

b. The six structures of the National Chart of Accounts for budgeting are as follows:
(i) Administrative segment: The Administrative segment assigns responsibility for each transaction whether revenue centre (receipt) or cost centre (payment).
(ii) Economic segment: Every receipt must be from a particular source e.g. Contractor Registration Fee. Likewise, every expense must be on a particular item or object e.g. Purchase of drugs and medical supplies.
(iii) Functional segment: Functional classification categorizes expenditure according to the purposes and objectives for which they are intended. Functional classification or Classification by Functions of Government (COFOG) is defined as a detailed classification of the functions, or socio-economic objectives, that general government units aim to achieve through various kinds of outlays. Functional classification organises government activities according to their broad objectives or purposes (for example, education, social security, housing, etc.). Government expenditure is measured according to internationally recognised functional categories. A functional classification is especially useful in analysing the allocation of resources among sectors. Functions and sub-functions will be assigned at the point of budget and planning for every transaction or initial setup.
(iv) Programme segment: The programme classification identifies various set of activities to meet specific policy objectives of the government e.g. Pre-primary education, poverty alleviation and food security.
(v) Funds segment: The fund segment addresses the “Financed by” element of a transaction. Fund refers to the various pool of resources for financing government activities. It will fast track the implementation of IPSAS particularly with respect to the full disclosure of government revenue including external assistance. (vi) Geographic segment: It addresses the location/station element of every transaction. It is for location or physical existence of transaction so that an analysis of government budget and expenditure along the various geo political zones, states, and local government councils in the country can be done. The use of geographic codes will make it easier for agencies with oversight function like monitoring and evaluation mandates to locate projects across the country.

c. The problems associated with debt conversion programme in a country are as follows:
(i) Inflation: From the discussion on the types of debt, there is an obvious fact that debt conversion transactions involve the release of domestic currency. As a consequence, there is the possibility of an unplanned increase in money supply thereby leading to inflationary pressure.
(ii) Round tripping: Debt conversion offers opportunity for round tripping which involves the conversion of redemption proceeds into foreign currency either in the official foreign exchange market or parallel market for exportation immediately or at a later date. This problem has serious implications not only for foreign exchange rate but also for balance of payment position.
(iii) Degree of additionality: This represents the capacity of debt equity swaps to attract foreign equity investment and flight capital into the country which otherwise would not have come in. Thus the advantages associated with debt conversion depend on the degree of additionality in the absence of which the exercise results only in minima benefit to the economy.
(iv) Fear of foreign domination: Debt conversion programmes tend to increase fear about the possibility of a radical change in the structure of business ownership in favour of foreigners. Such fears tend to generate political sensitivity about the programme.
(v) Effective transactions exchange rate: The transactions effective exchange rate is determined by a combination of factors such as discounted purchase price of the debt, tax or conversion charges among others. The transaction‟s effective exchange rate must be sufficiently attractive to the investors in order to make debt conversion worthwhile. On the other hand, an
excessively attractive transaction‟s exchange rate would constitute a loss to the economy, as it will amount to subsidising inefficiency.