By Ruth Olurounbi
The cost of servicing Nigeria’s external debt stock including multilateral, bilateral, commercial and Eurobond debts dropped by 10.2% to $202,373.63 in second quarter of 2018, as against the first quarter’s $225,253.15, data released by the Debt Management Office Nigeria (DMO) shows.
Figures show, however, that cost to service Eurobond obligations rose by as much as 132%, from $45.63 million in the first quarter to $105.93 million in the second quarter, while cost of service commercial debts also rose by 9.2%, rising from $104.69 million in the first quarter to $114.37 million in the second quarter.
The Federal Government’s multilateral obligations dropped nearly $9 million from $60.03 million in the first quarter to $51.15 million, just bilateral obligations dropped significantly from $60.5 million to $16.02 million, according to DMO.
PATIENCE ONIHA, DMO BOSS
The report, ‘Actual External Debt Service Payments in Second Quarter 2018’ report found on the debt office’s website shows also that Nigeria’s obligations at the Eurobond market totalled $8.8billion, inclusive of the $300 million Diaspora bond.
It will be recalled that the debt office recently said that the country’s is looking reduce its domestic debt stock which stood at N22.38 trillion ($73.21 billion) as at June 30, 2018 and will take on more foreign debt which is cheaper for the oil dependent economy to service.
