By Ismail Auwal
Nigeria’s debt profile has hiked to over N32 trillion at the end of September 2020.
The alarm was raised by the Debt Management Office (DMO) in a statement released on Thursday.
The figure means that national debt stock has risen by N1.19tn between the second and third quarter of 2020.
“The Total Public Debt Stock stood at N32.223 Trillion or USD84.574 Billion,” DMO posted on its website.
”The Debt Stock is made up of the Domestic and External Debt Stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),” the statement added.
According to the DMO, 37.82% represents External debts, while the balance of 62.18% is Domestic. “Compared to the Total Public Debt Stock of N31.009 Trillion as at June 30, 2020, the Debt Stock in Q3 2020 increased by N1.214 Trillion or 3.91%”.
“The FGN, State Governments and the FCT all recorded increases in their Debt Stock due to borrowings to enable them to respond appropriately to the COVID-19 Pandemic and to meet revenue shortfalls”.
Further breakdown of Nigeria’s public debt showed that the domestic debt is 20tn or 62.18 per cent of the total debt while foreign debt is 37.82 per cent.
