According to the Debt Management Office, DMO, Nigeria’s debt profile has risen to N16.29tn.
Statistics obtained from the DMO on Tuesday showed that the country’s total debt liability had risen to N16.29tn as of June 30, 2016 compared to N12.12tn as of June 2015. This means that within the one-year period (July 2015 to June 2016), the country’s total debt rose by N4.17tn, or 34.41 percent.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s official exchange rates of N283 to $1 as of June 30, 2016, and N197 as at December 2015 were used as exchange basis in arriving at the naira equivalent of the foreign debt status said the DMO.
Domestic debt of the Federal Government alone stood at N10.61tn as of June this year, up from N8.4tn a year ago. This means that within 12 months, the Federal Government’s domestic debt profile rose by N2.21tn or 26.31 per cent. The domestic debt of the states stood at N2.5tn at the end of June this year, whereas it was N1.69tn in July 2015.
The DMO recently said that refinancing 30 per cent of the Federal Government’s domestic debt amounting to N2.56tn within the next one year posed a high risk to the economy. In a document by the DMO titled ‘Nigeria’s Debt Management Strategy 2016-2019’, states that at least 30 per cent of the nation’s domestic debt would fall due within a one-year period.It also added that refinancing the 30 per cent component of the domestic debt posed high risk to the economy because of high interest rate.