Nigeria’s debt grows QoQ
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigeria’s debt grew to N41.6 trillion in the first quarter ended March (Q1 2022), an increase of N2.05 trillion versus N39.56 trillion in Q4 2021. The debt rose to $100.1 billion, as gleaned from the latest Debt Management Office (DMO) report.
Total public debt includes new domestic borrowing by the federal government to partly finance the 2022 budget deficit.
It also includes $1.25 billion Eurobond issued in March 2022 and loans taken from multilateral and bilateral lenders.
And there were increases in the debt of states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
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Breakdown
A breakdown of the debt owed by the federal and state governments in Q1 2022 shows that
- Federal domestic debt jumped 3.99 per cent to $48.45 billion from $46.59 billion in Q4 2021
- Domestic debt of states rose 7.91 per cent to $11.65 billion, and increase of $853 million quarter-on-quarter.
- Total domestic debt grew 4.73 per cent to $60.1 billion.
- FGN Bonds accounted for 70.7 per cent of total domestic debt at N14.24 trillion.
- Nigerian Treasury Bills accounted for 21.88 per cent with a total N4.41 trillion debt
- External debt grew 4.08 per cent to $39.96 billion
- Abuja spent N668.69 billion to service domestic debt, 115 per cent higher than N310.49 billion in Q4 2021 and 9.1 per cent above N612.71 billion in Q1 2021.
- External debt service notched $548.79 million in Q1 2022 versus $286.35 million in Q4 2021.
Initiatives yielding results
“Whilst the total public debt to GDP at 23.27 per cent was below Nigeria’s self-imposed limit of 40 per cent, the momentum by the government to grow and diversify revenues remain a priority to ensure the public debt is sustainable,” the DMO said, according to reporting by Nairametrics.
“Initiatives in this regard are yielding results as Actual revenues for January to November 2021 at N5.51 trillion was 39.21 per cent more than the N3.96 trillion recorded in 2020.
“Similarly, the share of Non-oil revenue grew by 80per cent compared to 61per cent in 2020.”