Nigeria’ s total debt stock rose by N8 tn
between September 2015 and
September 2017 , according to statistics
provided by the Debt Management
Office .
The DMO said the country ’ s total debt
stock as of the end of September this
year stood at N 20 . 37 tn , while the
figure at the same period in 2015
stood at N 12 .36 tn .
This means that within a period of two
years, the country ’s total debt
exposure rose by N 8 .1 tn . In terms of
percentage increase, the country ’s
total debt rose by 64 .81 in the period.
The DMO did not give a breakdown of
the federal and state governments’
components of the total debt
commitment . However , the bulk of the
debt usually belongs to the Federal
Government.
As of 2015 , the external loan
component of the country ’s total debt
stood at N 2 . 09 tn . However , as of
September 30 , 2017 , the external debt
component stood at N4 .60 tn . This
means that the external debt
component rose by N2 .6 tn or 124 .4
per cent .
The domestic debt component of the
total debt, on the other hand, rose
from N 10 .27 tn as of September 2015
to N 15 . 68 tn the same time this year.
This means that within the two- year
period, the domestic debt rose by
N5 .41 tn . In percentage terms , the
domestic debt increased by 52 . 68 per
cent.
Although the external debt component
of the total debt increased by a higher
proportion, the debt statistics as of
September 2017 show that the
domestic debt, with its high cost of
servicing, still dominates the country ’s
borrowing pattern.
However , the growth in the external
debt component may reflect the
Federal Government’s move to take
more foreign loans as against the
acquisition of more costly local debts .
The Federal Government is actually in
a process of taking a $ 3 bn foreign
loan to refinance some local debts that
are matured and another $ 2 .5 bn to
finance the deficit in the 2017 budget .
In a statement issued by the DMO in
Abuja on Tuesday , it said the Federal
Government would save N 91 bn on
local debt servicing if it secured the
$ 3 bn to refinance the local debts .
It added that the Federal Government
would save another N75 bn in debt
servicing if it got $ 2 . 5 bn from foreign
sources to finance the gap in the 2017
budget rather than from local sources .
These add up to N 166 bn savings in
debt servicing through external
financing compared with local
financing .
The statement also highlighted the
marginal increase in the nation’ s total
debt portfolio when compared to the
status as of June .
The statement read in part, “ The total
public debt stock , comprising the
Federal Government, states and
Federal Capital Territory ’s , stood at
N20 . 37 tn as of September 30 , showing
a marginal increase of 3 .6 per cent
from the N 19 .634 tn as of June 30 .
“ A breakdown of the debt stock shows
that domestic debt accounted for 76 .96
per cent , while external debt
accounted for 23 . 04 per cent.
“ Specifically , the domestic debt stock
was N15 .68 tn , which is an increase of
4 .1 per cent compared to N15 . 03 tn as
of June 30 . On the other hand, the
external debt stock stood at N 4 . 69 tn , a
marginal rise of 1 .9 per cent above the
N4 .6 tn figure as of June 30 .
“ These debt data lend credence to the
government’ s claims that the public
debt stock is skewed in favour of
domestic debt, which is partly
responsible for the high debt service
figures. ”
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