The Debt Management Office (DMO) said Nigeria’s total public debt stock rose to N42.84 trillion (103.31 billion dollars) by June, from the N41.60 trillion (100.07 billion dollars) in March.
The DMO, in a statement on its website on Tuesday, said total debt represents domestic and external debt stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Accoeding to the DMO, while the foreign component of the debt remained at the same level of N16.61 trillion (39.96 billion dollars), the local component rose to N26.23 trillion (63.24 billion dollars). The local component of Nigeria’s ’s borrowings was N24,98 trillion (60.1billion dollars) as at March 30.
A larger percentage of the external debts, according to the DMO were concessional and semi-concessional loans.
“Over 58 per cent of the external debt stock are concessional and semi-concessional loans.
“They were obtained 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.
“The total domestic debt stock increased from N24,98 trillion (60.1billion dollars) in March to N26.23 trillion (63.24 billion dollars) in June.
“This is 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 DMO added.
It noted that the total public Debt-to-GDP ratio remained within limits, at 23.06 per cent, while Debt-Service-to-Revenue was still high.
The DMO stated that the federal government was committed to increasing revenue so as to reduce the amount that went into debt servicing.
It further added: “The Debt-to-GDP as at June 30, was 23.06 per cent compared to the ratio of 23.27 as at March 30. It remains within Nigeria’s self-imposed limit of 40 per cent.
“While the Federal Government 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.”
Meanwhile, the Director-General if the DMO, Ms. Patience Oniha has said the debt management office is set to take its FGN Securities Awareness Programme to Yola on Wednesday and Umuahia on Sept. 29.
The programme, according to the DG, is designed to sensitise Nigerians on the huge investment benefits in FGN securities, thereby boosting financial inclusion.