FOLLOWING a string of fresh loans taken by the Federal Government, Nigeria’s debts now stand at over N30 trillion. Although, the latest information by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Nigeria’s debts puts the figure at N28.63 trillion as of March 31, 2020, the country had since then taken a number of fresh loans which pushed the figure above the N30 trillion mark.
Following the crippling effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, the Federal Government got a $3.4billion (N1.3trillion) facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May under its Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) programme to enable the country meet the urgent balance of payment needs to stem the effect of the pandemic.
Similarly, in June, the World Bank approved a $750 million (N289.5bilion) loan for Nigeria through the International Development Association (IDA) to improve electricity supply in the country. The government also raised N162.5billion from its third Sukuk issuance in June to fund road projects across the six zones, all of which bring the debt profile to N30.39trillion.
But the likelihood of the debts rising is high as the Senate recently approved the government’s request for additional external borrowings. The Senate gave its nod for the government to borrow $1.5bn (N579bn) from the World Bank to fund the 2020 revised budget deficit, $500m (N193billion) from the African Development Banks to cushion the effect of COVID-19 and to part-finance the 2020 revised budget deficit; and $113 million (N43.6billion) from the Islamic Development Bank to part-finance the 2020 revised budget deficit.
With the approved loan requests, Nigeria’s debts profile will go above N31trillion. The nation’s debt stock,which has been on the upward trend since 2008, hit N7,554,258,000,000 by December 31, 2012. It rose to N7,532,283,520,000 by the end of March 2013 and N 7,928,554,310,000 by June 30, 2013. By the end of September 2013, it rose to 8,320,054,280,000, got to N10,044,198,820,000 by December 31, 2013 and hit N10,162,342,830,000 by March 31, 2014.
The nation’s public debt rose to N10,433,045,350,000 by the end of June 2014, climbed to N10,841,246,420,000 by September 30, 2014 and became N11,243,120,220,000 by the end of 2014. At the end of March 2015, it was N12,062,335,230,000, it then climbed to N12,118,849,450,000 by the end of June, rose to N12,358,494,150,000 by the end of September and became N12,603,705,280,000 as of December 2015.
Nigeria’s indebtedness rose to N13,830,577,980,000 by March 2016, climbed to N 16,296,709,510,000 by June 2016, became N16,884,064,330,000 by September 2016 and hit N 17,360,009.58 by December 31, 2016. By the end of the first quarter of 2017 on March 31, the nation’s public debt was N19,159,809,160,000, rose to N19,636,982,660,000 by the end of June, got to N20,373,428,590,000 by the end of the third quarter on September 30, and became N21,725,773,030,000 by the end of December 2017.
The debt profile climbed up to N22,707,203,790,000 by the end of March 2018, hit N22,379,666,270,000 by June 30, 2018, became N22,428,802,940,000 by the end of September 2018, rose to N24,387,071,740,000 by December 31, 2018, and rose to N24.947 trillion as of March 31, 2019, climbed to N25.7trillion by the end of June 2019, became N26.14 trillion at the end of September 2019 and hit N27.4 trillion by December 2019.
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