THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported that Nigeria’s total public debts, consisting of external and domestic debts, stands at N27.4 trillion as at 31st December 2019.

The debt portfolio comprising state and federal debt stocks were N9.02 trillion or 31.55 per cent of the debt was external while N18.37 trillion or 67.07 per cent of the debt was domestic. 

Data is supplied administratively by the Debt Management Office (DMO), and verified and validated by
the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)

In economics, debt stock refers to a debt instrument, such as a government bond, corporate bond, or preferred stock, that can be bought or sold between two parties and has basic terms defined.

Lagos state accounted for 10.82 per cent of the total domestic debt stock, the highest while Yobe State has the least debt stock in this category with a contribution of 0.71 per cent to the total domestic debt stock.

According to the report, Nigeria’s total public debt portfolio as of December 31, 2019, total external debt was  N9.02 trillion ($27.67 billion) with a percentage of 32.93.

Break down showed that federal government debt instrument accounted for N7.53 trillion ($23.11 billion) with a percentage of 27.50, states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) accounted for  N1.48 trillion ($12.59 billion) with a percentage of 5.43.

A further breakdown of the NBS report showed that total domestic debt stood at $56.37 billion at N18.37 trillion with a percentage of 67.07.

Federal government domestic debt stood atN14.27 trillion ( $43.78 billion) with a percentage of 52.09, with states and FCT contributing N4.10 trillion ( $12.59 billion) with a percentage of 14.99.

The report showed that the total public debt is the addition of external and domestic debt instruments for the year 2019 which was N27.40 trillion ($84.05 billion).

This accounted for 100 per cent of both domestic and external debt instruments for the entire 2019.