As at the end of June 30, each Nigerian now owes about N165,500 to countries, international organisations and domestic investors as government borrowing increased to N35.5 trillion.
Data obtained from the Debt Management Office (DMO) published on Wednesday showed that Nigeria’s present debt stock increased in the last six months to 7.75 percent higher than the N32.9 trillion recorded at the close of last year
In terms of debt per capita which is calculated as the total public debt of a country divided by the country’s population, within the last six months, Nigeria’s debt increased by 0.60 percent from N164,500 in December.
The population figure used for the calculation is 200 million, as there is currently no official figure.
Giving a breakdown of Nigeria’s debt stock, the Director-General of DMO, Patience Oniha, revealed that external debt accounted for N13.7 trillion or 38.7 percent while approximately N21.8 trillion was sourced from the local market.
China accounted for about 10 percent of the external debt (which amounts to approximately N1.37 trillion), while the multilateral organisations had the largest share of 54.9 per cent.
Oniha also revealed that of the total value, 83.07 per cent was held by the Federal Government while the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) borrowings accounted for 16.93 per cent.
“The percentage of FG’s share of the national debt had increased from 81.94 per cent as at December 2020.
She however noted that the current debt stock remained within fiscally accepted bound but fears Nigeria’s low revenue can be a serious problem.
