NIGERIA’s public debt profile has further worsened to $110.48 billion, approximately N162.81 ‬trillion, following the approval of new sets of loans for the country by the World Bank.

In a statement on Thursday, June 13, the  World Bank disclosed that it has approved two significant financial operations aimed at bolstering Nigeria’s economic stability and supporting its vulnerable populations.

“The World Bank has today approved two operations: $1.5 billion for the Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilisation to Enable Transformation Development Policy Financing Program and $750 million for the Nigeria Accelerating Resource Mobilisation Reforms Programme-for-Results.

“This combined $2.25 billion package provides immediate financial and technical support to Nigeria’s urgent efforts to stabilise the economy and scale up support to the poor and most economically at risk. It further supports Nigeria’s ambitious, multi-year effort to raise non-oil revenues and safeguard oil revenues to promote fiscal sustainability and provide sufficient resources to deliver quality public services,” the international fund stated.

The new loans would help Nigeria stabilise its economy and scale up support to the poor.

It also aims to enhance the country’s non-oil revenue generation and safeguard oil revenues, thereby promoting fiscal sustainability and enabling the delivery of quality public services.

According to the latest report by the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s public debt profile stood at $108.23 billion or N97.34 trillion as of December 31, 2023.

The debt office highlighted that $42.495 billion or N38.22 trillion represents external debt and put $65.73 billion or N59.12 trillion as internal debt.

Of the external debt, the federal government owes $37.89 billion or N34.07 trillion, and the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) $4.61 billion or N4.15 trillion.

Also, the federal government owes a large chunk of $59.22 billion or N53.26 trillion of the internal debt while the states and FCT $6.52 billion or N5.86 trillion.

The ICIR can report that the DMO computed the figures using an exchange rate of about N899.39 to one dollar which was the prevailing market rate at the time.

Putting the $110.48 billion figure in context in the current reality using the Central Bank’s Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) rate of N 1,473.65 as of June 11, it then means that Nigeria’s debt stock has worsened to N162.81 ‬trillion.

It also means that with Nigeria’s population at 216.78 million people, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), each Nigerian could be owing $509.64 or N751,037 of the country’s total debt stock.

The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun had at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank held in May hinted that the federal government was set to receive fresh loan funding from the World Bank, totaling $2.25bn

The loans approved by the board of directors of the World Bank, offer a 40-year term with a 10-year moratorium and a nominal one per cent interest rate.