THE Debt Management Office (DMO) today disclosed that the country’s total debt as of December 31, 2021, has risen to N39.556 trillion ($95.779 billion), from N32.915 trillion it was on December 31, 2020 ($86.392 billion).
The amount represents the total external and domestic Debt of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Director-General, Patience Oniha, who made the disclosure in a media briefing explained that the public debt stock for December 31, 2021, includes new borrowings by the FGN and the sub-nationals.
“For the FGN, it would be recalled that the 2021 Appropriation and Supplementary Acts included total new borrowings (from domestic and external sources) of N5.489 trillion to partly finance the deficit. Borrowings for this purpose and disbursements by multilateral and bi-lateral creditors account for a significant portion of the increase in the debt stock. Increases were also recorded in the debt stock of the States and the FCT.
“The new borrowings were raised from diverse sources, primarily through the issuances of the Eurobonds, Sovereign Sukuk and FGN Bonds. These capital raisings were utilized to finance capital projects and support economic recovery,” she said.
Oniha added that total public debt stock to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at December 31, 2021, stood at 22.47%. She added that the Debt-to-GDP ratio still remains within Nigeria’s self-imposed limit of 40%.
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