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The Debt Management Office (DMO) has clarified Nigeria’s debt profile, contradicting recent media reports that President Bola Tinubu inherited N21 trillion in public debt, which supposedly increased to N142 trillion.
The DMO’s statement aims to provide accurate information and dispel misconceptions surrounding the country’s debt situation.
Persecondnews reports that according to the DMO, the actual total public debt as of June 30, 2023, stood at N87.38 trillion.
The DMO clarified that the figure includes the external and domestic debt of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“As a matter of fact, the Total Public Debt Stock as at June 30, 2023… was N87.38 trillion, and not N21 trillion as reported in the media,” the DMO stated.
The agency noted the importance of relying on verified data from official publications to avoid the spread of misinformation.
“The Debt Management Office (DMO) wishes to notify the general public that the news headline circulating in the media… is inaccurate.”
Nigeria’s debt servicing obligations continue to rise, with payments to multilateral creditors alone representing 88.2% of the total expenditure in Q3 2024.
The country spent $712,663,738.33 servicing multilateral debts, with key beneficiaries including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
In the Federal Government’s 2025 budget, President Tinubu’s administration plans to spend N16.327 trillion on its debt obligations, out of the proposed expenditure of N49.7 trillion.
The DMO noted that the recent successful issuance of $2.2 billion Eurobonds on the international capital markets demonstrates investor confidence in the nation’s instruments.
Persecondnews recalls that Nigeria’s public debt profile increased by N8.02 trillion to N142 trillion at the end of September 30, 2024 driven by the depreciation of the naira that has continued to affect the country’s cost of external obligation.
According to data published by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Tuesday, the spike represents a 5.97 percent increase from N134.3 trillion recorded in the second quarter of 2024.
The debt, comprising external and domestic obligations, reflects the significant impact of exchange rate depreciation on external borrowings when converted to naira terms.
With the exchange rate weakening from N1,470.19/$ in June to N1,601.03/$ by the end of September, Africa’s fourth largest economy has as much as N68.88 trillion ($43 billion) as its foreign debt, accounting for 48.4 percent of the total debt stock.
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