By Tony Obiechina, ABUJA
Nigeria’s total Public Debt as at 31st December, 2018, stood at N24.387 trillion or USD79.437 billion, the Debt Management Office, (DMO), has announced.
Briefing the media on the nation’s public debt data in Abuja on Thursday, the Director General of DMO, Ms Patience Oniha said the figure represented a year-on-year growth of 12.25 percent.
A further breakdown of the debt profile according to the Director General showed that “more progress was made towards achieving the target Debt Stock mix of 60% (Domestic) and 40% (External)”.
She explained that the share of Domestic Debt dropped to 68.18% from 73.36% as at December 31, 2017 thereby achieving a Mix of 68.18% and 31.82% in the Debt Stock.
According to the Ms Oniha, “the strategy of using relatively cheaper and longer tenored external funds is achieving the expected objectives”.
According to the DG, some of the objectives include, to create more space for other borrowers in the domestic market, extend the average tenor of the debt stock in order to reduce refinancing risk and increase External Reserves.
She said, ” the implementation of the strategy led to an injection of N855 billion through the redemption of Nigerian Treasury Bills in 2018 and a general drop in the FGN’s borrowing rate in the domestic market from over 18% p.a. in 2017 to 14 – 15% p.a. in 2018″.
The DG further explained that the FGN’s Domestic Debt Stock includes N331.12 billion Promissory Notes issued to Oil Marketing Companies and State Governments in December 2018.
She stated that some of DMO’s major plans in 2019 “are to undertake more of project-tied borrowing and access more external borrowing from Concessional Sources.”
Meanwhile, the DMO has announced plans to issue 30-year Federal Government of Nigeria Bonds (FGN Bonds) for the first time.
According to the DMO, the issuance of the Bond is intended to meet the needs of annuity funds and other long term investors while also developing the domestic capital market and reducing the re-financing risk of the FGN.
It stated that another area of focus “will be the management of Risks associated with the Debt Stock to mitigate Debt Service Costs”.
