RESEARCH TEAM
September 30th, 2022, public debt data published in December by the debt management office reveal Nigeria’s total issued third-party debt including debts owed by states and the FCT summed up to about N44.7 trillion.
- However, the total Ways and Means of N22.8 trillion for the same period takes the total adjusted public debt to about N67.5 trillion.
- This compares to a total of N42.8 trillion and N19.9 trillion for issued third debts and Ways and Means respectively. The total adjusted public debt of N67.5 trillion is a whopping N4.8 trillion or 7.7% higher than the N62.7 trillion debt stock as of June 2022.
Domestic Debt: The federal and state government locally issued debts include FGN securities, Treasury Bills, Green Bonds, and Sukuk.
- According to the September data, total domestic debt stock rose to N26.9 trillion from N26.2 trillion. States portion of domestic debt stock is estimated at N5.2 trillion.
- FGN Bonds continue to dominate as the largest portion of the Government’s issued debt pull summing to N15.7 trillion. Issued treasury bills for the period amounted to N4.5 trillion.
- Ways and Means which has in recent times added to Nigeria’s total domestic debt stock rose from N19.9 trillion to N22.8 trillion an increase of N2.9 trillion in 3 months.
Foreign debts: The September data reveals total foreign debt portfolio for the country was $39.6 billion or N17.8 trillion (assuming an official exchange rate of N450/$1) compared to $40 billion as of June 2022.
- The drop in foreign debts is a result of a drop in the World Bank loans outstanding which was stated as $12.5 billion in September compared to $13 billion as of June 2022.
- Nairametrics cannot immediately confirm if the reduction was due to the repayment of some parts of the loans by the government.
- Eurobond remains the dominant portion of Nigeria’s foreign loans with about $15.6 billion unchanged from the comparable period of June 2022.
Total Public debt in dollars: Nairametrics estimates the total public debt in dollar terms is now $150.1 billion assuming the exchange rate of N450/$1 is used.
Debt to GDP: Nigerian government has often cited the country’s low debt-to-GDP ratio (when compared to more developed countries) as a reason not to be alarmed by its ballooning debt.
