NIGERIA’S PUBLIC DEBT REACHES N44 TRILLION.

The third quarter of this year saw an N44.6 trillion increase in Nigeria’s federal debt (Q3 in 2022). When compared to the N42.84 trillion reported in Q2 of 2022, this implies a decline of 2.9% quarter over quarter.

In a press release posted on its website today, the Debt Management Office, or DMO, made this disclosure and noted that the increase in public debt was the result of new borrowings by the federal government to help offset the deficit in the 2022 Appropriations Act as well as new borrowings by sub-nationals.

The overall public debt stock, according to DMO, is made up of N17.5 trillion in external debt and N26.92 trillion in domestic debt.

The federal government of Nigeria (FGN), the state governments, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have a combined total public debt stock of N44.06 trillion, according to DMO.

“By contrast, as of June 30, 2022, the total public debt was N42.84 trillion. As of September 30, 2022, the overall stock of domestic debt was N26.92 trillion, while the total stock of external debt was N17.15 trillion.

The federal government’s new borrowings to help offset the deficit in the 2022 Appropriations Act, as well as new borrowings by sub-nationals, are mostly to blame for the growth in the debt stock.

The country paid N1.17 trillion on debt service in Q3’22, according to data from the DMO’s external and domestic debt service.

This is broken down into N820.59 billion for servicing domestic debt and N356.92 billion ($801.23 million) for servicing external debt.

Nigeria spent $9.6 billion servicing foreign debts over a 12-year period, from 2010 to 2021, according to the World Bank’s International Debt Report, IDR, which also noted that the country’s debt stock is not represented in the economy.