Nigeria’s debt hits N3.812 trillion – DMO

He also disclosed that the debt office would be funding this year’s budget with N867 billion, N500 billion of it would be raised through the international capital market this year.

Nwankwo at a press conference in Lagos gave the breakdown of the country’s debt profile to two with external debt accounting for $3,947.30 billion, about N584,595.13 billion and domestic debt of N3.228 billion or $21.796 million with aggregate to GDP ratio of 13.88

He attributed the increase to the accumulation of arrears, foreign exchange exposure of the country’s debt portfolio and the depreciation of Nigeria’s external debt reporting currency, the U.S. dollar against the three major external debt portfolio currencies.

Following the Paris Club debt deal, the external debt stock which stood at $35.944 billion in 2004 dropped to $20.477 billion in 2005 and a further reduction to $3.544 billion in 2006 but with a slight increase to $3.654 billion in 2007.

The domestic debt outstanding include CBN with N323.18 billion, Banks and Discount Houses N1.274 trillion, Non-bank public N1.345 trillion and sinking funds N284.72 billion.

Nwankwo said the debt office would be funding the portion of budget deficit of N867.48 billion from the bond market against the N524.11 contributed to the budget in 2009. He said the Federal Government could not raise the $500 billion deficit from the market last year due to worldwide economic crisis, emphasising that now that the international market is resettling, Nigeria would this year make its debut into the international capital market to raise $500 million.

He said other less African countries like Ghana, Gabon, Togo have all gone to the market to raise funds to support their economies. The director general explained that the proceeds from the FGN bonds fund would be used to finance commercial agriculture credit scheme, Nigeria Cotton, textile and garment scheme, revitalisation of railway transport and purchase of locomotives, as well as development of Abuja key access roads.