The National Bureau of Statistic (NBS) says the Federal Government has spent a total of N610.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019 to service its domestic loans.
The NBC disclosed disclosed in its first quarterly report for 2019, which covers three months from January to March.
Nigeria’s domestic debts are currently pegged at N13.11 trillion in the first quarter of 2019, which was raised from the issuance of seven financial instruments.
This includes the Federal Government savings bonds with a total debt pool of N9.72 trillion, Federal Government savings bonds with N9.7 billion, Sukuk bond with N200 billion and Green bond with N10.69 billion.
Other instruments used by the Federal Government in raising its domestic debt were the Nigerian Treasury bills with N2.65 trillion, Nigerian Treasury bonds N150.98 billion and Promissory notes with N366.85 billion.
The report also revealed that the Federal Government had spent N120.91 billion on interest payments on the Nigerian Treasury bills.
A breakdown of the N120.91 billion shows that the sum of N74.14 billion was spent in January while February and March had N29.68 billion and N17.09 billion respectively.
For the Federal Government bonds, the report stated that N480.84 billion was spent servicing this debt component during the three months period.
A breakdown of the amount showed that N183.62 billion was spent in January, N125.65 billion in February while March had N171.57 billion.
Similarly, the report explained that for the Savings bond component, the sum of N347.91 million was spent on interest on this debt instrument. The interest was paid in this manner, N100.5 million in January, N92.51 million in February while March had N154.89 million.
SBM Intelligence, Nigeria’s leading geopolitical intelligence platform in its analysis in a recent report, advised the Federal Government against further borrowing without a commensurate investment in major infrastructures.
” The debt profile of Nigeria has doubled in the past four years and there is no apparent end in sight.
Meanwhile, there are no major infrastructure or economic investments to show for all the borrowed sums, meaning the debts will be that much harder to repay,” it stated in the report.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.
