Nigeria’s Public Debt Stock Rose to N97.34tn in Q4 2023, Says NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s public debt stock rose from N87.91 trillion (114.35 billion dollars) in the third quarter of 2023 to N97.34 trillion (108.23 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2023.

 According to Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt Report for Q4 2023 released on Tuesday in Abuja, the statistics office said the country’s public debt stock, which included external and domestic debt, grew by 10.73 per cent on a quarter on a quarter basis.

It put the country’s external debt at N38.22 trillion (42.50 billion dollars) in Q4 2023, stressing that domestic debt stood at N59.12 trillion (65.73 billion dollars).

The report, however noted that the share of external debt to total public debt stood at 39.26 per cent in Q4 2023, while domestic debt was recorded at 60.74 per cent,” the report said.

A breakdown by states, showed that Lagos State recorded the highest domestic debt of N1.05 trillion in Q4 2023, followed by Delta with N373.41 billion.

Jigawa recorded the lowest domestic debt at N42.76 billion, followed by Kebbi at N60.69 billion.

However, Lagos State recorded the highest external debt with 1.24 billion dollars, followed by Kaduna State with 587.07 million dollars.

The report revealed that Borno recorded the lowest external debt with 20.49 million dollars, followed by Yobe with 21.49 million dollars.