Data from the Debt Management Office, (DMO) has shown that Nigeria’s debt servicing slowed to N849.58bn in the second quarter of 2023.
This was a decrease by 43.04 percent compared to N1.49tn, which was spent in Q1 2023 on servicing debt. However, in six months, a total of N2.34tn was spent on servicing the country’s debt.
According to Debt Management Office, between January and March 2023, Nigeria spent N874.13bn on domestic debt servicing, while it spent $801.36m (N617.35bn) on external debt servicing, giving a total of N1.24tn.
However, between April and June 2023, Nigeria spent N565.88bn on domestic debt servicing, and $368.26m (N283.7bn) on external debt servicing, a total of N1.24tn.
The exchange rate of the DMO, which was $1 to N770.38, was used for external debt servicing.
Despite the decrease in the cost of debt servicing, Nigeria’s total public debt hit N87.38tn at the end of June 2023.
The figure represented an increase of 75.29 per cent or N37.53tn compared to N49.85tn recorded at the end of March 2023.
The DMO, in a statement, said the debt included the N22.71tn Ways and Means Advances of the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Federal Government.
The statement also noted that other additions to the debt stock were new borrowings by the Federal Government and the sub-nationals from local and external sources. There was a significant increase in both domestic and external debt within three months.
The domestic debt rose by 79.18 per cent from N30.21tn, while the external debt rose by 69.28 per cent from N19.64tn in Q1 2023.
