Nigeria’s total public debt is now ₦121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion), the Debt Management Office (DMO) said Thursday.
The DMO said as of March 31, 2024, the country’s domestic and external debts stood at ₦121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion).
The country’s debt rose by ₦24.33 trillion within three months – from ₦97.34 trillion ($108.23 billion) in December 2023 to ₦121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion).
The debt represents external and domestic borrowings by the Federal Government and the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). While total domestic debt was put at ₦65.65trn ($46.29bn), total external debt was ₦56.02trn ($42.12bn).
The DMO stated that total public debt grew from ₦59.12trn last December to ₦65.65trn as of March 2024.
The total debt was reduced in dollar terms by $16.77bn or 18.34 per cent, as the increase was driven majorly by naira depreciation. The office used an official exchange rate of ₦1,330/$ to convert external debts to naira from ₦899.39 used to convert the debt in December 2023.
It added that excluding the impact of the naira exchange rate movement in the first quarter of 2024, the domestic debt saw a marked increase to ₦65.65tn on March 31, 2024, from ₦59.12tn on December 31, 2023.
Blames Budget Deficit
The rise was also attributed to a new borrowing undertaken to partly finance the 2024 budget deficit, and the securitisation of a portion of the ₦7.3tn Ways and Means advances at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
It noted that “the increase was from new borrowing to part-finance the 2024 Budget deficit and securitization of a portion of the ₦7.3 trillion Ways and Means Advances at the Central Bank of Nigeria”.
“Whilst borrowing, as provided in the 2024 Appropriation Act, will continue, we expect improvements in the Government’s Revenue to enhance debt sustainability.”
On May 29, 2024, President Bola Tinubu said he would soon present the 2024 Supplementary Budget to the National Assembly (NASS).
The DMO’s report came as President Bola Tinubu had expressed his administration’s commitment to breaking the cycle of overreliance on borrowing for public spending and the resultant burden of debt servicing it placed on the management of limited government revenues.
The president recently said the country could not continue to service its debt with 90 per cent of its revenue, noting that the country was heading for destruction if that continued.
The President said, “Can we continue to service external debts with 90 per cent of our revenue? It is a path to destruction. It is not sustainable. We must make the very difficult changes necessary for our country to get (wake) up from slumber and be respected among the world’s great nations.
“To build a great nation, we must make bold decisions; even though it may be painful, it is not about you and me. It is about generations yet unborn.”
Tinubu had on January 1, 2024, assented to the ₦28.7 trillion 2024 Appropriation Bill passed by the Senate.
The 2024 budget was ₦1.2 trillion higher than the budget originally proposed by the President to a joint NASS session on November 29, 2023. Christened the 2024 ‘Budget of Renewed Hope’, the President had pegged oil price at $77.96 with a daily oil production estimate of 1.78 million barrels per day.
The President had also pegged the naira at ₦750/$1 but barely weeks into the operationalisation of the budget, the naira plunged to nearly ₦2,000/$1 in February. The currency, which has wobbled in an unprecedented manner against the United States’ greenback in the last months since the unification of the foreign exchange windows, currently exchanges for around ₦1500/$1.