President Muhammadu Buhari administration will leave a debt stock debt of over N77 trillion for the incoming government from the current debt of N44.06 trillion as at third quarter of last year.
While the ways and means is about N22.3 trillion with an interest rate of 18.5 per cent, government is expected to borrow additional N8 trillion before it exits office on May 29, this year.
Speaking at the 2023 Budget breakdown in Abuja, the Director General, Debt Management Office (DMO), Ms Patience Oniha said that if the new borrowings are included in the current debt of N44.06 trillion, the total debt stock would amount to N77 trillion.
According to her, the debt stock is still growing from the issuance of promissory notes which are not true borrowing as such by the government.
“It will be safe to say that we will be looking at N77 trillion. While the debt is growing because of new borrowing, revenue is receiving significant importance. Like DMO always says, you can’t talk about debt without talking about revenue. We need the two to work together” she further explained.
Earlier, the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, disclosed revealed that Nigeria is not planning on restructuring its debt as it remains committed to meeting its
domestic and external debt obligations.
“The FGN will however continue to utilise appropriate debt management tools to streamline the cost and risk profile in the debt portfolio, including through concessional loans, spreading out of debt maturities to avoid bunching, and re-profiling of the debt maturities by refinancing short-term debt using long-term debt instruments” she said.
