Nigeria’s public debt stock rose from N35.46 trillion ($86.57 billion) in the second quarter of 2021 to N42.84 trillion ($ 103.31 billion) in the second quarter of 2022, largely driven by local borrowing to finance the budget deficit.
This includes external and domestic debt, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt Report for the second quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022 released in Abuja on Wednesday.
Nigeria’s deficit has grown this year due to the high cost of a fuel subsidy at a time when oil revenue has fallen due to crude theft and vandalism of pipelines.
The NBS stated that external debt stood at N13.71 trillion (N33.46 billion) in the second quarter of 2021 and increased to N16.61 trillion (N40.06 billion) in the second quarter of 2022.
It also stated that domestic debt was N21.75 trillion (53.10 billion dollars) in the second quarter of 2021, but increased to N26.23 trillion (63.24 billion dollars) in the second quarter of 2022.
This, it further stated, shows that public debt (in national currency) grew by 20.81 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 from figures recorded in the second quarter of 2021.
It, however, noted that the share of external debt increased from 38.66 per cent in the second quarter of 2021 to 38.78 per cent in second quarter of 2022 while domestic debt decreased slightly from 61.34 per cent in the second quarter of 2021 to 61.22 per cent in the second quarter of 2022.
On state profile analysis, the NBS stated that Lagos recorded the highest domestic debt in the second quarter of 2022 with N797.30 billion, followed by Delta with N378.87 billion and Ogun with N241.78 billion.
