NIGERIA'S PUBLIC DEBT IS DEFYING GRAVITY, REACHING AN ALL-TIME HIGH OF N42.3 TRILLION

According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria's total public debt stock increased from N41.60 trillion ($100.07 billion) in March to N42.84 trillion (103.51 billion dollars) in June.

The total debt represents the domestic and external debt stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the 36 State Governments, and the Federal Capital Territory, according to a statement obtained from OMO's website on Tuesday (FCT).

The foreign component of the debt remained unchanged at N16.61 trillion (39.46 billion dollars), while the local component increased to N26.23 trillion (63.24 billion dollars).

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the local component of the country's borrowings stood at N24.98 trillion (60.1 billion dollars) as of March 30. According to the DMO, a higher proportion of external debts were concessional or semi-concessional loans. "Over 58 per cent of the external debt stock are concessional and semi-concessional loans.

"They were obtained from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Afrexim and African Development Bank, and bilateral lenders including Germany, China, Japan, India and France. The total domestic debt stock increased from N24.98 trillion (60.1billion dollars) in March to N26.23 trillion (63.24 billion dollars) in June.

"This is due to new borrowings by the FGN to part-finance the deficit in the 2022 Appropriation (Repeal and Enactment) Act, as well as new borrowings by state governments and the FCT," the DMO stated.

"While the Federal Government continues to implement revenue-generating initiatives in the non-oil sector and block leakages in the oil sector, Debt Service-to-Revenue ratio remains high," it said.