Nigeria’s Public Debt Now Stands At ₦121.67 Trillion ($91.46 Billion) DMO Says
…As Nigeria acquired N24.33 trillion in three months
The Debt Management Office (DMO), has said that Nigeria’s domestic and external debts stood at N121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion) as at March 31, 2024.
The DMO explained that the country’s debt rose by ₦24.33 trillion within three months from ₦97.34 trillion ($108.23 billion) in December 2023 to ₦121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion) as at March 31, 2024.
It said that the debt represented both external and domestic borrowings by the Federal and the 36 State governments as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The DMO said that while total domestic debt stood at ₦65.65trn ($46.29bn), the external debt stood at a total of ₦56.02trn ($42.12bn).
It also stated that total public debt grew from ₦59.12trn last December to ₦65.65trn as of March 2024.
The DMO said; “The increase was from new borrowing to part-finance the 2024 Budget deficit and securitization of a portion of the ₦7.3 trillion Ways and Means Advances at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Whilst borrowing as provided in the 2024 Appropriation Act, will continue, we expect improvements in the Government’s Revenue to enhance debt sustainability”.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29, 2024, said he would soon present the 2024 Supplementary Budget to the National Assembly.
This was as the President on January 1, 2024, assented to the ₦28.7 trillion 2024 Appropriation Bill passed by the Senate which was ₦1.2 trillion higher than the budget originally proposed by the President to a joint NASS session on November 29, 2023.
In the 2024 Budget Christened; “Budget of Renewed Hope’, President Tinubu had pegged oil price at $77.96 with a daily oil production estimate of 1.78 million barrels per day.
The President also pegged the Naira at ₦750/$1 but barely weeks into the implementation of the budget, the Nigerian currency, the Naira plummeted to about ₦1,920/$1 in February 2024.
The Naira which has trembled in an unprecedented manner against the United States’ Dollars in the past months since the floating of the Naira is presently struggling to exchange for about ₦1495 to the Dollar.