Nigeria’s Debt Hits N42.84tn Amid Revenue Crisis – DMO

The Debt Management Office (DMO) has said Domestic Debt has pushed the country’s Total Public Debt Stock from N41.60tn in March 2022 to N42.84tn in June of the same year.

In a press statement published on its website on Monday, the DMO said the figures showed an increase of N1.24tn in three months.

The office revealed that the total public debt stock represents the Domestic and External Debt Stocks of Nigeria, the 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

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).”

According to the DMO, the Federal Government was unable to secure any foreign loans in the second quarter of 2022, adding that external debt remained the same at N16.61tn ($40.06bn) from Q1 to Q2 2022.

DMO said 58 per cent of external debt was concessional and semi-concessional loans from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Afrexim, 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 ratio remained high.