Tinubu’s Govt Inherited N87.38Trn, Not N21Trn Debt – DMO

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The Debt Management Office (DMO) has debunked milling media reports that President Bola Tinubu’s administration inherited N21 trillion in public debt, saying that the inherited public debt by the administration is far more than the amount being reported by the media over the past few days.

The Office, in a statement on Tuesday, clarified that Nigeria’s actual total public debt as of June 30, 2023, stood at N87.38 trillion, and comprised the external and domestic debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The statement partly reads: “As a matter of fact, the Total Public Debt Stock as at June 30, 2023… was N87.38 trillion, and not N21 trillion as reported in the media.

“The Debt Management Office (DMO) wishes to notify the general public that the news headline circulating in the media… is inaccurate”, DMO added.

The Office harped on the need for media to always verify their data from official sources to avoid misinformation on sensitive issues in their roles as the Fourth Estate of the realm.

The DMO noted that the recent successful issuance of $2.2 billion Eurobonds on the international capital markets demonstrates investor confidence in the nation’s instruments.

Nigeria’s debt servicing obligations have continued to rise over the past years. For instance, in Q3 2024 fiscal year, Nigeria’s payments to multilateral creditors, including the World Bank, represented about 88.2% of the total  debt service expenditure for the quarter.

Specifically, available data indicated that the governments spent $712,663,738.33 servicing multilateral debts, with key beneficiaries including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Again, in the 2025 Appropriation Bill now being deliberated upon by the National Assembly, the Tinubu administration is planning to spend N16.327 trillion out of the proposed expenditure of N49.7 trillion budget on debt servicing.

According to data from the DMO, Nigeria’s public debt profile increased by N8.02 trillion to N142 trillion in Q3, 2024, representing 5.97% increase from N134.3 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter and driven by the depreciation of the naira.

The debt profile reflected the significant impact of exchange rate depreciation on external borrowings when converted to naira terms.

With the exchange rate weakening from N1,470.19/$1 in June to N1,601.03/$1 by the end of September, the country had borrowed N68.88 trillion ($43 billion) as foreign debt, accounting for 48.4% of the total debt profile as of the end of the 3rd quarter in 2024.

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