20th December, 2023
By Kadiri Abdulrahman
Nigeria’s total public debt stock hit N87.91 trillion (114.35 billion dollars) as of Sept. 30, according to a statement by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Wednesday in Abuja.
The DMO said that the amount represented the domestic and external debts of the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the N87.91 trillion total debt stock represents a marginal increase of 0.61 per cent, when compared to the June figure of N87.38 trillion.
The debt office said this trend was explained by the decrease in external debt from 43.16 billion dollars as at June 30 to 41.59 billion dollars as at Sept. 30.
It said that there was also a relatively moderate increase of N1.80 trillion in the domestic debt.
“External debt decreased due to a redemption of 500 million dollars Eurobond.
“It also decreased due the payment of 413.959 million dollars as first principal repayment of the N3.4 billion dollars loan obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2020, during Covid-19,” the DMO said.
According to DMO, the servicing of all the debts is a clear demonstration of the federal government’s commitment to honouring its debt obligations.
It, however, said that President Bola Tinubu’s revenue generation initiatives remained important to Nigeria’s overall fiscal balance.