With the new data released by the National Bureau of Statistic, it is estimated that each Nigerian currently owns N396,376.19 in terms of debt per capita.
NBS did its analysis of Nigeria’s Public debt stock to arrive at this shocking truths.
In the stock report published, it reveals that the country’s total public debt increased by 75.27 per cent from N49.85 trillion in the first quarter of 2023 to N87.38 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2023. In monetary terms, this is an increase of N37.53 trillion in three months.
Breaking down the Cost and Debt Implications ICIR explained the implication.
Categorically, the federal government’s external debt amounted to N29.9 trillion, while the external debt of the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory reached N3.35 trillion.
For domestic debts, the Federal government’s debt is N48.31 trillion, while for States and FCT is N5.82 trillion.
Way and Means Advances is when the Federal government obtains a loan from CBN to meet short-term needs in emergencies. According to Section 38 of the CBN Act, the loan should not exceed five per cent of the country’s previous year’s actual revenue.
According to the NBS, domestic debt stood at N54.13 trillion ($70,264.58 million), at the end of June 2023, while external debt stood at N33.25 trillion ($43,159.19 million).
According to the data bureau, “Lagos state recorded the highest domestic debt in Q2 2023 with N996.44 billion, followed by Delta with N465.40 billion, while Jigawa state recorded the lowest domestic debt with N43.13 billion, followed by Kebbi with N60.94 billion.
“In addition, Lagos State recorded the highest external debt with US$ 1.26 billion, followed by Kaduna with US$569.38 million while Borno state had the least external debt with US$18.75 million, followed by Taraba with US$21.92 million.”
Recall that in April, the World Bank said that Nigeria spent 96.3 per cent of its 2022 revenue to service debts. The ICIR went further to analyse Nigeria’s indebtedness to the World Bank, which grew from $6.29 billion to $13.49 billion in 2022.
According to the calculations, each Nigerian owed N384,864 to the international apex bank.
Patience Oniha, the Director-General of the DMO, has attributed Nigeria’s substantial debt burden to decades of operating budget deficits under successive administrations.
She has advised President Bola Tinubu to consider this issue seriously and make boosting revenue generation a top priority.
