Data obtained from the Debt Management Office have shown that Nigeria has spent a total of N445.4 billion to service the debt  in the second quarter of this year.

From April to June 2021, Nigeria spent N322.7bn on domestic debt servicing, while $299m (N122.7bn) was spent on external debt servicing.

The exchange rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria ($1 is N410.3) as of September 30 was used for the external debt servicing.

Breakdown Analysis

For domestic debt, Nigeria spent N258bn in April, N42.4bn in May, and N22.3bn in June.

A breakdown of the statistics shows that the Federal Government spent a total of N322.7bn on the payment of interest, with N50.3bn expended on the redemption of matured Nigeria Treasury Bills between April and June 2021.

The total external debt stock rose from N12.47tn as of March 31 to N13.71tn as of June 30, indicating an increase of N1.24tn or 9.94 per cent.

At the end of Q2 2021, external debt stock made up 38.66 per cent while domestic debt stock made up 61.34 per cent of the total public debt stock.

For external debt servicing, commercial loans had 53 per cent with a cost of $157,012.17, multilaterals had 35 per cent with a cost of $103,732.70, and bilateral had 13 per cent with a cost of $38,220.88.

The DMO had earlier disclosed that Nigeria's total public debt stock rose from N33.11tn as of March 31, 2021 to N35.47tn as of June 30, 2021.

This shows an increase of N2.36tn or 7.13 per cent increase within the three-month period.

Debt Stock

At the end of the second quarter, a breakdown of external debt stock showed that multilateral debt (from World Bank Group and African Development Group) led the list of Nigeria’s creditors with a share of 54.88 per cent.

The second highest was commercial debt (from Eurobonds and Diaspora Bonds) with a share of 31.88 per cent.

It was followed by bilateral debts (from China, France, Japan, India and Germany) with a share of 12.70 per cent, while Promissory Notes had a share of 0.54 per cent.