According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), at the conclusion of the 2023 second quarter, Nigeria’s total public debt was ₦87.38 trillion.
Nigeria Debt Rises
The amount is up 75.29%, or ₦37.53 trillion, from the ₦49.85 trillion recorded at the end of March 2023.
The DMO in a report on Thursday said the debt includes the ₦22.71 trillion Ways and Means Advances of the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Federal Government.
The DMO stated that “Nigeria’s total public debt stock as at June 30, 2023, was ₦87.38tn ($113.42bn).
“It comprised the total domestic and external debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the thirty-six states, and the Federal Capital Territory.
People Also Read: CBN Denies Plans To Crash FX Rate To ₦1.25
“The major addition to the Public Debt Stock was the inclusion of the ₦22.712tn securitised FGN’s Ways and Means Advances”.
The statement also noted that other additions to the debt stock were new borrowings by the Federal Government and the sub-nationals from local and external sources.
Fiscal Reform
It added that “the reforms already introduced by the present administration and those that may emerge from the recommendations of the Fiscal Reform and Tax Policies Committee, are expected to impact debt strategy and improve debt sustainability.”
The DMO had earlier projected that Nigeria’s public debt burden may hit ₦77 trillion, following the National Assembly’s approval of the request by former President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the CBN’s Ways and Means Advances.
The Ways and Means Advances is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the shortfalls in the government’s budget.
New Borrowing
The Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, during a public presentation of the 2023 budget organised by the former Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed, noted that the debt would be ₦70 trillion without ₦5 trillion new borrowing and ₦2 trillion promissory notes.
However, the latest data showed that the current debt stock of ₦87.38 trillion exceeded the DMO’s projection by ₦10.38 trillion.
Further breakdown showed that Nigeria has a total domestic debt of ₦54.13 trillion and total external debt of ₦33.25 trillion.
While the domestic debt makes up 61.95% of total debt, the external makes up 38.05%.
Also, it is observed that there was a significant increase in both domestic and external debt within three months.
The domestic debt rose by 79.18% from ₦30.21 trillion while the external debt rose by 69.28% from ₦19.64tn in Q1 2023.
In its 2022 Debt Sustainability Analysis Report, the DMO warned that the Federal Government’s projected revenue of ₦10 trillion for 2023 could not support fresh borrowings.