September 20, (THEWILL) – The Debt Management Office has disclosed that Nigeria’s total public debt stock has increased from N41.60 trillion, as of March 2022, to N42.84 trillion as of June of the same year, showing an increase of N1.24 trillion in three months.
According to a press statement released by the DMO, the Federal Government was unable to secure any foreign loans in the second quarter of 2022.
It noted that external debt remained the same at N16.61 trillion ($40.06bn) from Q1 to Q2 2022.
The DMO added that 58 percent 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.
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 N42.84trn ($103.31bn) as at June 30, 2022. The comparative figures for March 30, 2022, was N41.60trn ($100.07bn).”
It also noted that domestic debt rose to N26.23trn ($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 Federal Capital Territory.
The DMO further said that the Total Public Debt to Gross Domestic Product as at June 30, 2022, was 23.06 percent, compared to the ratio of 23.27 percent as at March 30, 2022, adding that the debt service-to-revenue ratio remained high.
