Nigeria’s total debt stock, which comprises external debt and domestic debts of the Federal Government, the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) increased to N44.6 trillion in the third quarter of this year (Q3 in 2022).
Debt Management Office (DMO), which confirmed latest debt figure on Friday on its website said the figure represents a 2.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter decline when compared to N42.84 trillion recorded Q2 , June 2022 .
The debt agency attributed the increase in public debt to new borrowings by the Federal Government to part-finance the deficit in the 2022 Appropriation Act, as well as new borrowings by sub-nationals. According to DMO, the total public debt stock comprises domestic debt of N26.92 trillion and external debt of N17.5 trillion.
“Total public debt stock, which comprises the total domestic and external debt stock of the Federal Government of Nigeria, all State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) stood at N44.06 trillion. “In comparison, the total public debt figure as of June 30, 2022, was N42.84 trillion. The total domestic stock as of September 30, was N26.92 trillion while the total external debt stock as of September 30, 2022, was N17.15 trillion. “The increase in the Debt Stock was largely due to New Borrowings by the Federal Government to part-finance the deficit in the 2022 Appropriation Act, as well as, New Borrowings by sub-nationals.”
Data from the DMO’s external and domestic debt service also showed that the country spent N1.17 trillion on debt in Q3’22. This comprises N820.59 billion for domestic debt service and N356.92 billion ($801.23 million) for external debt service. Federal Government spent N1.33 trillion to service domestic debts in the first half of 2022, representing an increase of 42.5% compared to N935.46 billion spent in the corresponding period of 2021. When compared to the second half of 2021, domestic debt service increased by 19.2% from N1.19 trillion.
