…Says Buhari’s N2.343tr external loan request not new
The Debt Management Office (DMO) had in March placed Nigeria’s public debt at N32.915 trillion.
In a statement, the DMO stated that the debt as of December 31, 2020 included the debt stock of the Federal and State governments as well as the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT).
It pointed out that after Nigeria exited from recession in 2017, the level of new borrowings at the federal level in the Annual Appropriation Acts had been reducing due to measures to ensure a moderate rate of growth in the Public Debt Stock for debt sustainability.
“New borrowing to part-finance budget deficits had declined steadily from N2.36tr in 2017 to N2.01tr in 2018; N1.61tr in 2019 and N1.59tr in the first 2020 Appropriation Act.”
It further noted that apart from the new domestic borrowing of N2.3trillion, the other new borrowings were concessional loans from the International Monetary Fund, (IMF), $3.34 billion, and other multilateral and bilateral lenders.
“Total Public Debt-to-Gross Domestic Product, (GDP), as of December 31, 2020 was 21.61 percent, which is within Nigeria’s new limit of 40 percent”, it stated.
According to the annual Nigeria’s External Debt Stock of 2020, 53.78% of the country’s debt is owed to multilateral organisations; debt from bilateral was at 12.17%, commercial debt was 33.49% while Promissory Notes formed 0.56% of the debt profile.
In a related development, the DMO defended President Muhammadu Buhari’s loan approval request to the National Assembly on Tuesday, noting that it was not new as reported.
According to a statement posted on its website, the DMO clarified that President Buhari‘s request was only to demand resolution to the adoption of the new external capital raising contained in the Appropriation Act for 2021 from the legislative arms of government according to law.
