Nigeria’s public debt stock, comprising external and domestic debts, rose to N134.30 trillion (about $91.35 billion) in the second quarter of 2024 from N121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion) in Q1 2024, representing a growth rate of 10.38% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported.
The Bureau, which gave these figures in its ‘Nigeria Domestic and Foreign Debt Q2 2024’ report published on Thursday, reflected that in the quarter under review, the nation’s total external debt stood at N63.07 trillion ($42.90 billion), while total domestic debt was N71.22 trillion ($48.45 billion).
The statistics agency further clarified that the share of external debt (in naira value) to total public debt was 46.96% in Q2 2024, while the share of domestic debt (in naira value) to total public debt was 53.04%.
According to the report, Lagos State recorded the highest domestic debt of N885.99 billion in Q2, 2024, followed by Rivers State with N389.20 billion, while Jigawa State recorded the lowest debt stock with N1.82 billion, followed by Ondo State with N15.10 billion.
In addition, the report listed three other states with high domestic debt stocks as including Delta State with N304.5 billion debt, Ogun State, N211.1 billion; and Imo State with N159.1 billion at the end of second quarter of this year.
The Bureau reported that apart from recording the highest debt stock in the quarter under review, Lagos State also had the highest external debt stock with $1.20 billion, followed by Kaduna with $640.99 million, while Yobe had the lowest external debt stock with $20.49 million, followed by FCT with $20.85 million.
Other states with high external debt stocks include Edo State with $380.97 billion, Cross River State with $210.98 billion, and Rivers State with $203.8 billion as of the end of the Q2, 2024
On the methodology used in computing the debt stock, the statistics agency stated that debt data was provided by the Debt Management Office (DMO), adding that the external Debts are only published by the DMO bi-annually that is, in Q2 and Q4 only.
