DMO puts Nigeria’s total debt at N22.38trn

Debt Management Office (DMO) yesterday disclosed that Nigeria’s total debt stock as at June this year stands at N22.38 trillion. This figures show that the total public debt which encompasses the domestic and external debt stock of the federal and 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory stands at N22.38 trillion or $73.21 billion as at June 30, 2018. According to the DMO, this figure was a marginal increase of 3.01% over the public debt stock for December 2017. The increase in the Public Debt Stock over the 6 months period was due largely to the $2.5 billion Eurobond issued in February 2018. When compared to the debt data for March 2018, the public debt stock actually decreased by 1.44% from N22.707 trillion in March 2018 to N22.38 trillion in June 2018. The decrease was due to a 3.38% decline in the FGN’s domestic debt stock between March and June 2018. There were however marginal increases of 0.07% in the External Debt Stock and 2.75% in the domestic debt of states. A major highlight in the dwas the consistent decrease in the FGN’s domestic debt which declined from N12.589 trillion in December 2017 to N12.577 trillion in March 2017 and N12.151 trillion in June 2018. According to the DMO, this reduction in the FGN’s domestic debt stock arose from the redemption of N198 billion Nigerian Treasury Bills in December 2017 and another N639 Billion between January and June 2018. It will be recalled that a total of $3 billion was raised through Eurobonds to refinance maturing domestic debt as part of the implementation of the debt management strategy for the purpose of substituting high cost domestic debt with lower cost external debt to reduce debt service costs for the government.