Nigeria’s debt totalled at N32.22trn in Q3 2020 – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, says Nigeria’s total foreign and domestic debt stood at N32.22trn in the Q3 of 2020.

The bureau in its Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt for Q3 2020 published on its website said Nigerian States and Federal Debt Stock data as of 30th September 2020 reflected that the country’s total public debt portfolio stood at N32.22trn in the Q3 of 2020.

The survey indicates that Nigeria’s total public debt showed that N12.19trn or 37.82% of the debt was external, while N20.04trn or 62.18% of the debt was domestic.

Further disaggregation of Nigeria’s foreign debt showed that $16.74bn of the debt was multilateral; $502.38m was bilateral (AFD) and another $3.26bn bilateral from the Exim Bank of China, JICA, India, and KFW, while $11.17bn was commercial which are Eurobonds and Diaspora Bonds.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) had in September put the nation’s debt stock as at June 30, 2020, at N31.009 trillion or USD85.897 billion.

The corresponding figures for March 31, 2020, were N28.628 trillion or USD79.303 billion.

The increase in the debt stock by N2.381 trillion or USD6.593 billion was accounted for by the USD3.36 Billion budget support loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), New Domestic Borrowing to finance the Revised 2020 Appropriation Act including the issuance of the N162.557 billion Sukuk, and Promissory Notes issued to settle Claims of Exporters.

The DMO said it expected the Public Debt Stock to grow as the balance of the new domestic borrowing is raised and expected disbursements are made by the World Bank, African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank which were arranged to finance the 2020 Budget.

It will be recalled that the 2020 Appropriation Act was revised in the face of the adverse and severe impact of COVID-19 on Government’s Revenues and increased expenditure needs on health and economic stimulus amongst others.

Additional Promissory Notes were also expected to be issued in the course of the year. This and new borrowings by State Governments were also expected to increase the Public Debt Stock.

Suzan O