Nigeria’s debt profile has risen by N5.4trn since 2015

Nigeria’s debt profile has risen by approximately N5.4 trillion since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in May, 2015, TheCable can report.

According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s debt profile stood at approximately N12.12 trillion as at June 2015, barely a month after the current government took office.

But according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) the country’s foreign debt stood at $11.41 billion dollars, while its domestic debts was N14.02 trillion respectively in 2016, amounting to N17.5 trillion.

The NBS stated in “Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt – 2016’’ data, posted on its website on Wednesday in Abuja, that the sum reflected the states’ and federal debt stock.

The report showed that $7.99 billion of the debt was multilateral; $198.25 million was bilateral (AFD) while $3.22 billion from the Exim Bank of China credited to the federal government.

“Total Federal Government debt accounted for 68.72 per cent of Nigeria’s total foreign debt while all states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) accounted for the remaining 31.28 percent,” NBS said

“Similarly, total Federal Government debt accounted for 78.89 per cent of Nigeria’s total domestic debt while all states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) accounted for the 21.11 per cent balance.’’

The report further gave a breakdown of the federal government domestic debt stock by instruments reflected that N7.56 trillion or 68.41 per cent of the debt were in federal government bonds.

About “N3.28 trillion or 29.64 per cent are in treasury bills and N215.99 million or 1.95 per cent are in treasury bonds”.

“Lagos State has the highest foreign debt profile among the 36 states and the FCT accounting for 38.70 per cent.

“Kaduna (6.25 per cent), Edo (5.15 per cent), Cross River (3.22 per cent and Ogun (2.90 per cent) followed closely.’’

Similarly, the report stated that Lagos State had the highest domestic debt profile among the thirty-six and the FCT accounting for 10.54 per cent.

“Delta (8.15 per cent), Akwa Ibom (5.25 per cent), FCT (5.16 per cent) and Osun (4.97 per cent) followed in that order,’’ the report stated.

The figures were largely affected by foreign exchange rates and increased government borrowing to get the nation out of recession.