By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government of Nigeria has reiterated that there is no need for panic over the country’s rising debt profile, blaming critics of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari of amplifying the issue so as to discredit the government.
Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, made this claim on Monday during a media briefing on the achievements recorded by the present administration in the outgoing 2019.
Mr Mohammed noted that the country’s debt was still within a reasonable range, emphasising that the panic was not needed because it was not backed by enough numerical facts, giving room for exaggeration.
According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s external debt as at June 2019 was $27.1 billion, with the 36 states and Abuja owing $4.2 billion. A further breakdown showed that domestic debt level as at June was $56.7 billion, with the states owing $12.9 billion.
In Naira terms, external debt stood as N8.3 trillion in June and domestic debt was N17.3 trillion, making the country’s total debt at N25.5 trillion.
Business Post recently reported that the debt stock to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria reduced to 18.99 percent as at June 30, 2019 from 19.09 percent as at December 31, 2018, citing data sourced from the debt office.
However, despite the present debt level of the country, President Buhari requested for an approval for an external borrowing of $29.96 billion from the National Assembly on November 28, 2019. The President claimed that the new loan would be used to for the nation’s development and to tackle the multidimensional poverty in the country.
Prior to the emergence of Mr Buhari’s administration into office in 2015, the nation’s debt profile was N12 trillion. However, in 2016, the administration embarked on a borrowing spree which currently put the nation’s total debit profile at N25 trillion today. From 2016 to the first quarter of 2019, Nigeria has borrowed over N12 trillion.
