Business
Nigeria’s Debt Rises To N27.4trn

The Federal Government and the 36 states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, owed a total of N27.4 trillion as of December 2019, according to latest figures released by the Debt Management Office, recently
The development marked an increase in Nigeria’s public debt portfolio from September 2019, when it was disclosed that the country owed a total of N26.22 trillion.
The N27.4 trillion included the total external and domestic debt portfolios of the Federal Government and the states.
Data obtained from the DMO last week showed that domestic debt amounting to N18.3 trillion accounted for 67.07 per cent of the total debt stock.
The Federal Government’s share of the domestic debt portfolio was N14.2 trillion, or 52.09 per cent, while the states and FCT owed N4.1 trillion or 14.99 per cent.The country’s total external debt was 9.02 trillion, which made up 32.93 per cent of the total debt portfolio.
Out of the total external debt sum, the Federal Government owe N7.5tn, which amounted to 27.50 per cent, while the states and the FCT owe N1.4 trillion, about 5.43 per cent of the total debt portfolio.
The DMO explained that the CBN official exchange rate of US$1 to N326 as of December 31, 2019, was used in converting the domestic debts to dollars.
The Tide reports that as of September 2018, the Federal Government, the states and the FCT owed a total of N25.7 trillion.