Nigeria’s total public debt stock has raced to N42.84 trillion (USD 103.31 billion) as of the second quarter of 2022, up by N1.24 trillion and representing a 2.9 percent uptick from the figures at the end of the first quarter (N40.60 trillion).
This is according to the press release made by the Debt Management Office of Nigeria (DMO) on its website.
According to DMO, the total public debt stock represents the domestic and external Debt Stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the thirty-six (36) State Governments, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Decomposing the nation’s total debt stock shows that the total external debt as of June 30 stood at N16.61 trillion ($40.06 billion), 38 percent of Nigeria’s total debt stock. It was about the same level as the figure recorded on March 31, 2022; N16.61 trillion ($39.9 billion). The debt office said, “over fifty-eight percent (58%) of the External Debt Stock are concessional and semi-concessional loans from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Afrexim, and African Development Bank and bilateral lenders including Germany, China, Japan, India, and France.”
On the other hand, the total domestic debt stock for the reporting period was N26.23 trillion ($63.24 billion) due to New Borrowings by the FGN to part-finance the deficit in the 2022 Appropriation (Repeal and Enactment) Act, as well as New Borrowings by State Governments and the FCT.
The country’s total public debt to GDP ratio for June 30, 2022, stood at 23.06 percent; somewhat stable when compared to the previous quarter’s 23.27 percent. DMO asserted that the debt to GDP ratio remains within Nigeria’s self-imposed limit of 40 percent. The office further said that “the FGN continues to implement revenue-generating initiatives in the non-oil sector and block leakages in the oil sector, Debt Service-to-Revenue Ratio remains high.”
What You Should Know
Data from the Debt Management Office shows that the federal government’s actual domestic debit service for April – June 2022 was N664,728,501,948.46. Also, Nigeria’s actual external debt service payment for the same period is 597,951,031.06.
Federal government domestic debt stock by instrument amounted to N20.9 billion. The instruments include FGN Bonds (N15.2 trillion), Nigerian Treasury Bills (4.5 trillion), Nigerian Treasury Bonds (N76 billion), FGN Savings Bond ( N20.9 billion), FGN Sukuk Bond (N612 billion), Green Bond (N25.7 billion), Promissory Notes (N515 billion).
