By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria spent 96.3 per cent of the revenue made in the 2022 fiscal year on servicing its debts, the World Bank has reported.
This means for every N1, the country made last year, it uses about 96 Kobo to service its worrying debt stock, which amounted to N46.25 trillion at the end of last year.
This raises fresh worries, said the global lender in its Macro Poverty Outlook for Nigeria: April 2023 brief.
According to the report, Nigeria’s fiscal position deteriorated in 2022, leaving the cost of the petrol subsidy to increase from 0.7 per cent to 2.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
“This has kept the public debt stock at over 38 per cent of GDP and pushed the debt service to revenue ratio from 83.2 per cent in 2021 to 96.3 per cent in 2022,” it read.
“The fiscal deficit was estimated at 5.0 per cent of GDP in 2022, breaching the stipulated limit for a federal fiscal deficit of 3 per cent.”
It warned that oil price booms, which have previously supported the country’s economy, has changed since 2021 on unprecedented oil theft.
The cause for this, according to the World Bank, was macroeconomic stability weakening amidst declining oil production, costly fuel subsidies, exchange rate distortions, and monetisation of the fiscal deficit.
“In 2022, oil revenues, the fiscal deficit outturn, FX reserves, and economic growth decoupled from the cycle of higher global oil prices.”
“GDP growth decelerated from 3.6 per cent in 2021 to 3.3 per cent in 2022,” the report added.
“Growth was driven by manufacturing, construction, and most services. In contrast, the oil sector shrank by 19.2 per cent. From the demand side, growth was driven by private consumption and investment.”
It also revealed that the deteriorating economic environment was leaving millions of Nigerians in poverty, resulting in risks tilting to the downside, given the lack of macro-fiscal reforms, the naira demonetisation, and an uncertain external outlook.
The World Bank recently projected the country’s economy to grow by 2.8 per cent.
