Nigerian foreign debt hits N6.76trn in Q2 –NBS
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said Nigeria’s foreign debt stood at N6.76trillion ($22.08 billion) as at second quarter ended June 30, 2018.
The apex statistical agency in its latest report said ‘Nigerian domestic and foreign debt’ stood at N15.63 trillion.
According to the bureau, “Further disaggregation of Nigeria’s foreign debt showed that $10.88billion of the debt was multilateral; $274.98million was bilateral (AFD) and another $2.12billon bilateral from the Exim Bank of China, JICA, India and KFW while $8.80billion was commercial.
“Lagos State has the highest foreign debt profile among the thirty-six states and the FCT accounting for 34.17per cent while Edo (6.57per cent), Kaduna (5.48 per cent), Cross River (4.56per cent) and Bauchi (3.18perecnt) followed closely.
“Similarly, total domestic debt was N3.48 trillion with Lagos state accounting for 14.88 per cent of the total domestic debt stock while Anambra State has the least debt in this category with a contribution 0.08percent to the total domestic debt stock.” According to debt statistics obtained from the Debt Management Office, the country’s external debt rose from $10.32bn in June 30, 2015 to $22.08bn as of June 30 this year.
This means that the country’s external debt commitment has grown by 114.05 per cent in the last three years. Although multilateral debt made up $10.88bn or 49.28 per cent of the country’s external debt profile, most of the increases in the last three years occurred in the area of commercial loans. According to the DMO, commercial foreign loans, which stood at $1.5bn as of June 30, 2015, had risen to $8.8bn as of June 30 2018.
This means that in the last three years, the country’s exposure to commercial foreign loans has risen by $7.3bn or 486.67 per cent.
With a commitment of $8.47bn, the World Bank is responsible for 38.36 per cent of the country’s foreign portfolio.
Apart from the World Bank Group, Nigeria is also exposed to some other multilateral organisations such as the African Development Bank with a portfolio of $1.32bn and the African Development Fund with a portfolio of $843.47m.
Others are the International Fund for Agricultural Development with a portfolio of $159.44m; the Arab Bank for Economic Development with a portfolio of $5.88m; the EDF Energy (France) with a portfolio of $64.96m and the Islamic Development Bank with a portfolio of $16.92m.
On the other hand, bilateral debts make up $2.39bn or 10.87 per cent of the country’s external debt exposure.
