Nigeria Debt Hit N32.9 Trillion

Nigeria’s total  public debt portfolio as at December 31, 2020, stood at N32.92 trillion.

The National Bureau of Statistics, revealed this in its Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt report for Quarter Four, 2020.

According to the bureau, Nigeria’s total public debt showed that N12.71 trillion or 38.60 per cent of the debt was external, while N20.21 trillion or 61.40 per cent of the debt was domestic.

“Further disaggregation of Nigeria’s foreign debt showed that 17.93 billion dollars of the debt was multilateral, 4.06 billion dollars was bilateral from the African Development Bank, AfDB, Exim Bank of China, Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA, India and KFW.

“Meanwhile, 11.17 billion dollars was commercial which are Eurobonds and Diaspora Bonds and 186.70 million dollars as Promissory notes,’’ the NBS stated.

The report said that the total states and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, domestic debt was put at N4.19 trillion with Lagos State accounting for 12.15 per cent of the debt stock.

It added that Jigawa had the least debt stock in this category with a contribution of 0.74 per cent.

Breakdown Analysis

Of Nigeria’s foreign debt, ₦3.69 trillion ($10.24 billion) was multilateral while ₦98.99 billion ($274.98 million) was bilateral.

The FG borrowed ₦752.4 billion ($2.09 billion) from the Export-Import Bank of China credited while ₦2.27 trillion ($6.30 billion) was commercial debt. The FG’s debt pile accounted for 78.23 percent of the total foreign debt.

Of the states and the FCT, Lagos has the highest foreign debt profile, accounting for 35.61 percent. 

Similarly, total state domestic debt was ₦3.35 trillion with Lagos accounting for 10.85 percent while Sokoto has the least debt with a contribution 0.78 percent to the total domestic debt stock.