In the first quarter of 2022, or Q1’22, Nigeria spent N896.7 billion on servicing its domestic and international debt, a 12% year-over-year (YoY) decrease from the N1.02 trillion paid in the same time in 2021.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) stated in its External and Domestic Debt Service Payment Reports for Q1’22 that N668.7 billion of this sum was used for domestic debt service, which is a 9.0 percent YoY increase over the N612.7 billion paid in Q1’21.
The study also reveals that during the period, N228 billion ($548.78 million) was spent on servicing external debt, which is a 44% YoY decrease from the N410.1 billion spent in Q1 of 21.
According to the DMO report, Nigeria’s total public debt stock rose 5.2% from the end of December 2021 to the beginning of Q1’22, from N39.56 trillion to N41.6 trillion.
N48 trillion in domestic debt and N36.8 trillion in external debt make up the total of N41.6 trillion in debt.
The DMO ascribed the debt growth to the $1.25 billion Eurobond issued in March 2022, payments from bilateral and multilateral lenders, and new domestic borrowing by the federal government to partially finance the 2022 budget deficit.
According to the agency, the federal capital territory’s (FCT) and state governments’ debt stocks also increased.
