Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Debt Management Office (DMO) has disclosed that Nigeria’s total public debt stock increased by 5.2 per cent or N2.04 trillion to N41.60 trillion in the first quarter of 2022 from N39.56 trillion as of December 2021.
Nigeria’s debt stock covers the total domestic and external debt of the federal government, the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The latest report was released by the debt office in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.
It read in part, “The total public debt stock as at March 31, 2022, was N41.60 trillion or $100.07 billion.”
“The amount represents the domestic and external debt stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the thirty-six state governments and the Federal Capital Territory. The comparative figures for December 31, 2021, were N39.56 trillion or $95.78 billion,” the debt management agency added.
According to the DMO, the total public debt stock includes new domestic borrowing by the FGN to partly finance the deficit in the 2022 Appropriation Act, the $1.25 billion Eurobond issued in March 2022 and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.
Nigeria’s debt has been a huge source of worry for many and with election season in full flow, public commentators note that this will be an issue for presidential aspirants to tackle.
It added that there were also increases in the debt stock of the state governments and the FCT.
The DMO also said the total public debt to GDP is now 23.27 per cent, which is far below Nigeria’s self-imposed limit of 40 per cent, a basis the agency has always advised the government to borrow more despite an underlying issue of poor debt to revenue ratio.
