According to official documents, Nigeria’s debt has increased by approximately N4 trillion over the last five months, reaching N45.25 trillion.
According to the records, between April and August, the federal government regularly issued domestic debt instruments, raising around N3.34 trillion.
Naira depreciation and external debt
Additionally, it was claimed that the stockpiles of external debt had expanded as a result of the naira’s depreciation.
The documents under scrutiny were from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Debt Management Office’s (DMO) monthly issuance reports.
Additionally, Arthur Steven Asset Management and Vetiva Capital Management Limited, two leading investment and finance firms that handle government debt issues, were involved.
The DMO had reiterated earlier in the month that by the end of the first quarter, which ended on March 31, 2022, the national debt stocks had increased to N41.6 trillion.
According to the statistics, during the five months, the government issued bonds totaling N1.116 trillion. Additionally, it collected N220.01 billion through the Open Market Operation (OMO) and raised N1.999 trillion through the Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs).
The DMO stated that it converted the nation’s external obligations for the first quarter using the official CBN exchange rate, which was N415.75 to the dollar as of March 31, 2022. As of August 31, 2022, the official rate of the apex bank was still N423.48 per dollar.
The increase in external debts due to currency depreciation, which went from N16.62 trillion in the first quarter to N16.93 trillion at the end of last month, served as the basis for a breakdown of the overall debt stocks.
domestic debts
By the end of August, the domestic debt had increased from N24.987 trillion in the first quarter to N28.322 trillion due to fresh issuances.
By the conclusion of the first quarter of 2022, the debt stock had increased from N32.92 trillion in December 2020 to N39.556 trillion in December 2021 and then to N41.6 trillion.
Over 88% of the debt stock was held by the federal government.
Experts from the public and commercial sectors voiced concerns about the growing debt load, which continued to spark contentious public discussions.
