Nigeria spends N896.7bn on debt servicing in Q1’22 – Report

Nigeria spent N896.7 billion on domestic and foreign debt servicing in the first quarter of 2022, Q1’22 , representing a 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline from N1.02 trillion spent in the corresponding period of 2021.

In its External and Domestic Debt Service Payment Reports for Q1’22, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said that of this amount N668.7 billion was spent on domestic debt service, representing a 9.0 percent YoY rise when compared to N612.7 billion spent in Q1’21.

The report also shows that N228 billion ($548.78 million) was expended on servicing of external debt during the period, representing a 44 per cent YoY decline from N410.1 billion spent in Q1’21.

Meanwhile, the DMO report indicated that Nigeria’s total public debt stock increased quarter-on-quarter, QoQ, by 5.2 percent to N41.6 trillion in Q1’22 from N39.56 trillion recorded at the end of December 2021.

The N41.6 trillion debt consists of N36.8 trillion external debt and N4.8 trillion domestic debt.

The DMO attributed the debt increase to new domestic borrowing by the federal government to partly finance the deficit in the 2022 budget, the $1.25 billion Eurobond issued in March 2022, and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.

The agency said that there were also increases in the debt stock of the state governments and the federal capital territory (FCT).