The Debt Management Office of Nigeria has revealed that the Nigeria’s public debt has surged to N97.34tn ($108bn) as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
DMO disclosed this in a statement available to journalists on Friday.
Public debt is one of the ways countries get extra funds for economic development. This way, a country can execute bigger projects that can aid its development.
The statement partly read, “Nigeria’s public debt stock as at December 31, 2023 was N97.34trn or $108.229bn.”
“This amount comprises the domestic and external debt stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the 36 states governments and the Federal Capital Territory.”
The document revealed that,l this amount indicates a significant increase compared to N89.43tn recorded in September, 2023.
DMO said the increase was largely due to new domestic borrowing by the government to partly finance the deficit in the 2024 Appropriation Act and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.
It noted that, at N59.12tn, total domestic debt accounted for 61 per cent of the total public debt stock while external debt at N14.3822trn accounted for the balance of 39 per cent.
“Consistent with the debt management strategy, Nigeria’s external debt stock was skewed in favour of loans from multilateral (49.77 percent) and bilateral lenders (14.02 per cent ) or total of 63.79 per cent which are mostly concessional and semi concessional,” the document added.
The DMO says it has continued to employ the best practice in public debt management and is committed to shore up the country’s revenue.
“Whilst the DMO continues to employ best practice in public debt management, the recent and on-going efforts of the fiscal authorities to shore up revenue will support debt sustainability,” it stated.
