Nigeria's Debt Rises by $4.33b in 2 yrs- NBS

By Francis Arinze Iloani
Nigeria Daily Trust
Sep 20 2017 2:19PM

Nigeria's total debt rose by $4.33 billion in two years to hit $15.05 billion in 2017.

This was disclosed in the foreign and domestic debt statistics of the country as at June 2017 released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Abuja.

The apex statistical body reported that country's domestic and foreign debts as at June 30 were $15.1 billion and N14.1 trillion respectively.

The report showed that the Federal Government accounts for $11.106 billion, or about 74 per cent, while the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja account for  about $3.94 billion, or 26 per cent.

Nigeria had debt stock of $10.72 billion in 2015, and this rose to $11.41 billion in 2016.

The debt stock in 2017 exceeded those of the previous two years to stand at $15.05 billion.

The Federal and State government shares of the debt stock grew from $7.349 billion and $3.369 billion in 2015, to $7.84 billion and $3.568 billion in 2016, and $3.94 billion and $11.106 billion in 2017 respectively.

The NBS gave further disaggregation of the country’s foreign debt to include $9.67billion as multilateral debt; $218.25million as bilateral (AFD) and $5.15billion from the Exim Bank of China credit to the Federal Government.

Details of the debt figures show that the domestic debts figures of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT have continued to grow since 2015 under the present administration.

From about N2.503 trillion in 2015, the NBS data showed the figure rose to N2.959 trillion in 2016 before reaching the latest point of N3.001 trillion in 2017.

NBS reported that out of the total N14.017 trillion national debt stock, the Federal Government accounts for about N11.058 trillion, or 78.66 per cent, against about N2.959 trillion, or 21.34 per cent by all the states and the FCT.