Nigeria’s Total Debt Now N35.4trn

Nigeria’s total Public Debt Stock (PDS) has reached N35.465 trillion as of June 30 this year, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has said. The Director-General of the Office, Patience Oniha revealed this on Wednesday in a virtual presentation. The latest data showed the debt stock rose by N2.35tr between the first and the second quarters of this year.

As of March 31, the total debt stock which consists of domestic and external debts of the federal, state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was $87.239bn (about N33.107tr). This shows a N2.358tr rise in the debt stock from the end of the first quarter of the year to the end of the second quarter.

A breakdown of the debts shows that a larger chunk of the debt is the domestic component, which is N21.75tr, accounting for 61.3% of the total debt stock. External debts accounted for N13.7tr (38.3%) of the total debt stock.

The federal government led on the debtors’ profile with N11.82tr external debt and N17.63tr domestic debt. The States and FCT had N1.88tr external debt and N4.12tr domestic debt stock.

Commenting on the latest debt stock, the DMO head said borrowing was key to bridging the deficits in budgeting and infrastructure in the past.

“Huge infrastructure deficit, recession (twice in six years), consecutive budget deficits, low revenue base compounded by dependence on one source – crude oil which prices crashed and at a point, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, had no buyers,” she noted.

She also said DMO is in the process of converting the Ways and Means debt of about N10tr from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by the federal government to a tenured debt.

“Where we are is to get the necessary approvals to convert it into a tenured debt.”