The total debt stock of Nigeria is likely to reach N45 trillion as the Debt Management Office, DMO, plans to borrow additional N6.39 trillion to finance the 2022 budget deficit.
This is according to a DMO document obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Friday, March 18, 2022, in Abuja.
In the document, Patience Oniha, Director-General of the DMO, explained that the overall deficit in the 2022 budget was N6.30 trillion, representing 3.46 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
NAN recalls that the DMO had earlier revealed that the country’s total debt stock as at December, 2021 was N39.55 trillion.
Oniha said that the budget deficit was to be financed mainly by borrowings from both domestic and foreign sources, as well as privatisation proceeds.
“N2.57 trillion will come from domestic sources, N2.57 trillion from foreign sources, N1.16 trillion from multilateral and bilateral loan drawdowns, and N90.7 billion from privatisation proceeds,’’ she said.
The DG said that the 2022 aggregate Federal Government spending was projected at N17.1 trillion, which is 18 percent higher than the 2021 budget.
“Recurrent (non-debt) spending, estimated to amount to N6.9 trillion, is 40 percent of total expenditure and 20 percent higher than the 2021 budget.
“Aggregate capital spending of N5.96 trillion is 35 percent of total expenditure,’’ she said.
She added that debt service in the 2022 budget was N3.6 trillion, making it 21 percent of total expenditure and 34 percent of total revenue.
“Provision to retire maturing bonds of N270.7 billion to local contractors is 1.6 percent of total expenditure.
“This provision is in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to offset accumulated arrears of contractual obligation dating back over a decade,” she said.
