Nigeria has seen its debt stock rise sharply in recent years as it tries to fund infrastructural and developmental projects, with the country’s total public debt rising to $79.5 billion (N28.63 trillion) as of the first quarter of 2020, representing a 15 per cent increase from the figure that was recorded for the corresponding period in 2019, which was about $69.09 billion (N24.94 trillion).
According to data obtained from DMO, $27.66 billion (N9.9 trillion) is the total external debt. This represents 34.89 per cent of the total public debt stock. Whereas, $51.64 billion (N18.64 trillion) is the total domestic debt, which represents 65.11% of the total public debt.
The Federal Government accounts for 50.77 per cent of the total domestic debt, which is $40.26 billion (N14.53 trillion), whereas the State Governments and Federal Capital Territory account for 14.34 per cent of the total domestic borrowing which is $11.37 billion (N4.11 trillion).
Nigeria has been under a lot of fiscal crisis following the crash of oil prices triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The oil sector accounts for about 90 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings and about 60 per cent of its total revenue.
The country, which had lined up a series of debt issue this year, had to halt the external commercial borrowing due to oil price collapse. The Minister for Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had last week disclosed that the country would no longer go ahead with its Eurobond debt issue.
The Nigerian government, for now, is focusing on the domestic markets and concessionary loans to help fund the 2020 budget deficit which is made worse by drop in revenue. In the recently approved 2020 revised budget, the federal government is expected to borrow N850 billion from the domestic market.
