By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Nigeria’s Total Public Debt as December ended 2021 stood at N39.556 Trillion or USD95.779 billion, the Debt Management Office (DMO), has revealed.
This amount represents the total External and Domestic Debts of the Federal Government, 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The comparable figure for December, 2020, was N32.915 Trillion or USD 86.392 billion.
Director General of DMO, Ms Patience Oniha made the disclosure at the Public presentation of the nation’s Debt data in Abuja on Thursday.
According to her, the Public Debt stock for December, 2021 includes new borrowings by the Federal government and the sub nationals.
The DG recalled that for the Federal government, the 2021 Appropriation and Supplementary Acts included Total New Borrowings from Domestic and External sources of N5.489 Trillion to partly finance the budget deficit.
She said, “Borrowings for this purpose and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral creditors account for a significant portion of the increase in the Debt Stock. Increases were recorded in the Debt Stock of the States and the FCT”.
Continuing, Ms Oniha further explained that new Borrowings were raised from diverse sources, primarily through the issuance of the Eurobonds, Sovereign Sukuk and FGN Bonds, adding that “these capital raising were utilized to finance capital projects and support economic recovery”.
“With the Total Public Debt Stock to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at December 31, 2021, of 22.47%, the Debt-to-GDP ratio still remains within Nigeria’s self-imposed limit of 40%.
“This ratio is prudent when compared to the 55% limit advised by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for countries in Nigeria’s peer group, as well as the ECOWAS Convergence Ratio of 70%”.
“The Federal government is mindful of the relatively high Debt-to-Revenue Ratio and has initiated various measures to increase revenues through the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative and the introduction of Finance Acts since 2019”, she added.
