THE latest Debt Management Office (DMO) report has shown that Nigeria’s total public debt rose to N97.34 trillion as of the end of December 2023.
This represents an increase of N9.43 trillion or 10.73 per cent against N87.91 trillion reported in September 2023.
According to DMO’s report, the federal government has a domestic debt of N53.26 trillion, while the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory have a domestic debt of N5.86 trillion.
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Debt per capita
The ICIR calculated the debt stock per capita by dividing the total public debts of the country by the country’s population. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria has a projected population of 216.78 million.
Going by this data, each Nigerian now owes N449,022.94.
This is higher than N405,520 owed in September 2023 and N396,376.19 owed in June 2023.
On the other hand, the external debts of the federal government stood at $37.89 billion while the subnational state external debt stood at $4.61 billion; totaling $42.50 billion
The ICIR converted the external debts using the Central Bank of Nigeria’s official rate as of December with N899.393/ 1$. By this conversion, the external debt would be N38.22 trillion.
The International Monetary Fund had projected that Nigeria would face more higher percentage of debt to gross domestic product in 2024
Reacting to the marginal increase in public debt, the President, of the Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria, ACMAN, Uche Uwaleke, said: “The latest public debt data shows that the pace of public debt accumulation has slowed given the marginal increase recorded as well as the decrease in the external component.
“However, it is worrisome that the outstanding domestic debt stock is more in FGN bonds which are not tied to specific projects accounting for over 80 percent.
“It is important that future domestic borrowings are done using more of infrastructure bonds such as Sukuk and Green Bonds instead of FGN bonds which tend to compound the debt service burden since they are not connected to any self-liquidating project,” he added.
Kehinde Ogunyale tells stories by using data to hold power into account. You can send him a mail at [email protected] (jameskennyogunyale@gmail) or Twitter: Prof_KennyJames
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.