Nigeria’s debt jump by N6 trillion in 1 year

Nigeria’s total public debt stock has increased by over N6 trillion in just one year, according to new report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The report, Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt report, recently published by the bureau, said total public debt (External and Domestic) incurred by Nigeria stood at N32.22 trillion ($84.57 billion) as of September 2020, which represents an additional N6.01 trillion when compared to N26.21 trillion recorded as of the corresponding period of 2019.

A breakdown of the report shows that external debts accounted for 37.82% (N12.19 trillion) of the total debt stock, while domestic debts at N20.04 trillion represented 62.18% of the total.

Further breakdown of Nigeria’s foreign debt showed that $16.74bn of the debt was multilateral.

Also, $502.38m was bilateral (AFD) and another $3.26bn bilateral from the Exim Bank of China, JICA, India, and

KFW while $11.17bn was commercial which are Eurobonds and Diaspora Bonds.

Total external debt grew by $5.04 billion (N3.9 trillion) within the period, indicating an increase of 18.72%.

Total domestic debt on the other hand declined by $5.86 billion. However, it represents an increase in Naira value of N2.09 trillion, largely due to multiple devaluations of the currency during the period