IMF loans, others push Nigeria’s debts to N31trillion

Nigeria’s total debt stock has risen to N31 trillion as of June 2020, from N28.6tn reported in March, the Debt Management Office, DMO has said.

According to the periodic data which it released on Wednesday, DMO said the public debt stock consist of those for the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

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The N31.009tn debt is about $85.897 billion while that of March which was N28.628tn was about N79.303bn, growing by N2.38tn or $6.59bn due to the $3.36bn Budget Support Loan from the International Monetary Fund, New Domestic Borrowing to finance the Revised 2020 Appropriation Act, the issuance of the N162.557 billion Sukuk, and Promissory Notes issued to settle Claims of Exporters.

The DMO expects the Public Debt Stock to grow as the balance of the New Domestic Borrowing is raised and expected disbursements are made by the World Bank, African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank which were arranged to finance the 2020 Budget.

Recall that the 2020 Appropriation Act had to be revised in the face of the adverse and severe impact of COVID-19 on Government’s revenues and increased expenditure needs on health and economic stimulus amongst others.

It said additional Promissory Notes are  expected to be issued in the course of the year, this, and new borrowings by State Governments are also expected to increase the Public Debt Stock.