Nigeria’s debt rises by N1.31tn in one year

The Debt Management Office says Nigeria’s debt burden rose by N1.31tn in one year.

Official statistics released by the DMO in Abuja on Wednesday showed that the country’s total debt rose from N11.24tn as of December 31, 2014 to N12.6tn at the end of 2015.

The N1.31tn increase showed that within a period of one year, the country’s debt rose by 12.1 per cent.

As of June 30, 2015, the country’s debt burden stood at N12.12tn. This means that the federal and state governments grew the country’s debt profile by N480bn in the first six months of last year.

The total is made up of the external debt of the federal and state governments, the domestic debts of the Federal Government as well as the domestic debts of the states.

In terms of segmentation, the external debts of both tiers of government rose from $9.71bn as of December 31, 2014 to $10.71bn as of December 31, 2015. This shows a rise of $1bn or growth rate of 10.37 per cent within the period.

The domestic debt of the Federal Government, which is the biggest component of the debt burden, rose from N7.9tn as of December 31, 2014 to N8.84tn in the 12-month period.

This shows that the domestic debt of the Federal Government rose by N932.97bn within the one-year period. It also means that the domestic debt of the Federal Government rose by 11.8 per cent.

The 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory held $3,369,911,154.54 of the country’s external debt component, while the Federal Government’s external commitments stood at $7,348,520,340.26.

With $1,207,900,597.65, Lagos remained the most externally indebted state of the federation as it held 35.84 per cent of the country’s subnational external debt.

For 2016, the Federal Government expects to borrow N984bn from domestic sources and N900bn from foreign sources to finance the capital component of the budget.

It will also set aside the sum of N113bn as a sinking fund towards the retirement of maturing loans, while N1.36tn has been provided for foreign and domestic debt service obligations.

Our correspondents reported that the Federal Government spent a total of N2.95tn to service domestic debts for a period of five years from 2010 to 2014.