Nigeria’s Debt Hits N42.8 Trillion Amid Shrinking Revenue

The Debt Management Office has disclosed that Nigeria’s total public debt stock has increased from N41.60tn as of March 2022 to N42.84tn as of June of the same year, showing an increase of N1.24tn in three months.

This is according to a press statement published on the DMO’s website on Monday.

The statement read in part, “The Total Public Debt Stock, representing the Domestic and External Debt Stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory, was N42.84tn ($103.31bn) as of June 30, 2022. The comparative figures for March 30, 2022, was N41.60tn ($100.07bn).”

The DMO noted that external debt remained the same at N16.61tn ($40.06bn) from Q1 to Q2 2022, adding that 58 per cent of external debts were concessional and semi-concessional loans from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Afrexim and African Development Bank and bilateral lenders including Germany, China, Japan, India and France.

It also noted that domestic debt rose to N26.23tn ($63.24bn) due to new borrowings by the government to part-finance the deficit in 2022 Appropriation {Repeal and Enactment) Act, as well as new borrowings by State Governments and the FCT.

The DMO further said that the Total Public Debt to GDP as of June 30, 2022, was 23.06 per cent compared to the ratio of 23.27 per cent as of March 36, 2022, adding that the Debt Service-to-Revenue Patio remained high.