Nigerian govt spends $2.78bn to service external debts in seven months

SAHARA REPORTERS

Nigeria has continued spending huge amounts on debt servicing, going by the data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria in its international payments data report.

According to the apex bank, in the first seven months of 2024, a total of $2.78billion was spent on external debt servicing. 

Data from the CBN website shows that $542.5million was paid in July, $50.8million was spent in June,  $854.3million in May, $215.2million in April, $424.7million in March, $283.2million in February and $560.5million in January.

The CBN data showed that external debt servicing had gulped the highest amount in May at $854.36m followed by $560.51m in January and $542m in July.

This development comes amid discussion on scarce resources and Nigeria struggling to meet its financial responsibilities. 

There have been concerns on reliance on loans by the Nigerian government, this is given the impact of these on the amounts the country spends on debt servicing and how this denies the needed development.

Debt servicing has overtime being reported as taking a significant portion of Nigeria’s revenue and reported to be more than Nigeria’s capital expenditure per data published by the government.

THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN SAHARA REPORTERS