The country’s national debt stock hit N35.5 trillion at the end of June 2021, the Debt Management Office (DMO) revealed yesterday. The new figure is 7.75 per cent higher than the N32.9 trillion recorded at the close of last year.
According to the Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, the external debt accounted for N13.7 trillion or 38.7 per cent while approximately N21.8 trillion was sourced from the local market.
Of the total value, 83.07 per cent was held by the Federal Government while the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) borrowings accounted for 16.93 per cent. The percentage of FG’s share of the national debt had increased from 81.94 per cent as at December 2020.
Recall that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had disclosed at a session organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) that debts of some states were not captured in the figures regarded as national debts.
The DMO boss, Oniha, said the amount remained within fiscally accepted bound except that not much is done to shore up poor revenue. She explained that China accounted for about 10 per cent of the external debt (which amounts to approximately N1.37 trillion), while the multilateral organisations had the largest share of 54.9 per cent. [The Guardian]
