December 10, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s public debt reached N44.6 trillion in the third quarter of 2022 (Q3 ’22), data released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) show.
The DMO, in a press statement on its website, said the figure represents a 2.9 percent quarter-on-quarter increase when compared to N42.84 trillion recorded in Q2 in 2022.
It added that the total public debt stock comprises domestic debt of N26.92 trillion and external debt of N17.5 trillion.
“As of September 30, 2022, Nigeria’s Total Public Debt Stock which comprises the Total Domestic and External Debt Stock of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), all State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) stood at N44.06 trillion”, the statement added.
Before this announcement, Nigeria’s total public debt as of June 2022, stood at N42.84 trillion.
According to the DMO, “The total domestic debt stock as of September 30, 2022, was N26.92 trillion, while the total external debt stock as of September 30, 2022, was N17.15 trillion.”
The DMO attributed the increase in the debt stock to “largely new borrowings by the Federal Government to part-finance the deficit in the 2022 appropriation Act, as well as new borrowings by sub-nationals.”
Data from the DMO’s external and domestic debt service also showed that the country spent N1.17 trillion on debt in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022.
N820.59 billion was spent on domestic debt service and N356.92 billion ($801.23 million) was spent on external debt service.
The federal government spent N1.33 trillion to service domestic debts in the first half of 2022, representing an increase of 42.5 percent compared to N935.46 billion spent in the corresponding period of 2021.
A sizable amount of this money was used to offset obligations to local contractors.
When compared to the second half of 2021, domestic debt service increased by 19.2 percent from N1.19 trillion.
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