Nigeria’s total debt now N12.12tn –DMO

Director-General of the DMO, Mr. Abraham Nwankwo

Nigeria’s total debt stock now stands at N12.12tn ($63.81bn), the Debt Management Office has said.

Statistics obtained from the organisation on Sunday showed that the domestic debt stock of the Federal Government as of June 30 stood at N8.39tn or $42.63bn.

The domestic debts of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory Administration, on the other hand, stood at N1.69tn ($10.86bn) at the end of June.

On the external sector, the country’s debt stock was put at $10.32bn (N2.03tn) at the end of June.

The DMO gave a hint that the actual domestic debt of the states could be higher because the figure only reflected the position of the indebtedness of the states as of December 31, 2013.

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It added that the compilation of the 2014 debt stock for the states and the FCT was in progress.

In the first quarter of the year, the country’s total debt stock stood at N12.06tn. This shows a marginal increase of 0.5 per cent or an addition of N60bn within the period of three months.

As of March 31, the domestic debt of the Federal Government stood at N8.51tn. This shows a decline of N120bn or 1.41 per cent.

There was no difference in the domestic debts of the states and the FCT as the DMO has been working with the figures of December 2013.

The external debt of the country stood at $9.46bn as of March 31. This means that the external debt increased by $860m or 9.09 per cent within the period of three months.

A year ago (that is, June 30, 2014), the country’s total debt stock stood at N10.43tn. This means that within a 12-mong period, the country’s debt stock had increased by 16.2 per cent, adding N1.69tn.

Similarly, the country’s external debt stood at $9.38bn as of June 30, 2014. This means that within the period of one year, the nation’s external debt rose by $940m. This shows an increase of 10.02 per cent.

On the domestic scene, the Federal Government’s domestic debt stood at N7.42tn as of June 30, 2014. This means that within the one year period, the domestic debt of the Federal Government rose by N970bn or 13.07 per cent.

By instrument, the Federal Government Bonds accounted for N5,300,418,821,000 or 63.13 per cent of its domestic debt.

The Nigerian Treasury Bills accounted for N2, 824,952,245,000 or 33.64 per cent of the Federal Government’s total domestic bill, while Treasury Bond accounted for N271,220,500,000 or 3.23 per cent of the Federal Government’s domestic bill.

In the external sector, multilateral donors accounted for 70.11 per cent of the country’s external debt, while bilateral sources accounted for 15.35 per cent. Commercial debts accounted for 14.54 per cent of the nation’s external debt.

Given the nation’s dwindling resources as a result of falling oil prices, there is an indication that borrowing will continue to play a major role in the funding of both the federal and state governments.

During his recent visit to the United States, President Muhammadu Buhari sealed a $2.1bn funding from the World Bank for the rebuilding of the North-East region devastated by Boko Haram insurgents.

As the DMO continues to borrow for the government on monthly basis through the instrument of the FGN Bonds, experts have advised the government not to borrow to pay salaries or any other recurrent expenses.