Nigeria’s national debt rises to N97.3 trillion as a result of FG’s new borrowings.

Data released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Friday in Abuja shows that as of December 31, 2023, Nigeria’s public debt increased by 10.7% from N87.87 trillion in Q3’24 to N97.34 trillion.

In a statement released yesterday, the DMO stated that new domestic borrowing by the Federal Government (FG) to partially finance the deficit in the 2024 Appropriations Act and payments made by bilateral and multilateral lenders were the main causes of the increase in the debt stock. The Office stated that N59.12 trillion of the N97.3 trillion in public debt is made up of domestic debt and N38.22 trillion of external debt. During the review period, $3.5 billion was utilized to pay down external debt.

“Total domestic debt, at N59.12 trillion, made up 61% of the total stock of public debt, with the remaining 39% coming from external debt, at N38.22 trillion. Nigeria’s external debt stock was skewed in favor of loans from multilateral lenders (49.77 percent) and bilateral lenders (14.02 percent), or a total of 63.79 percent, which are primarily concessional and semi-concessional, in line with the debt management strategy.

The latest and ongoing efforts by the fiscal authorities to increase revenue will support debt sustainability even as the DMO continues to use best practices in public debt management.