Nigeria’s debt stock hits N32tr - NBS

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday, disclosed that Nigeria’s states and federal government debt stock as of December 31, 2020, stands at N32.92trillion.

This was contained in the Bureau’s statement published in its website in Abuja.

While the total states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) domestic debt was put at N4.19 trillion with Lagos accounting for 12.15 per cent of the debt stock while Jigawa State has the least debt stock in this category with a contribution of 0.74 per cent.

NBS noted that Nigeria’s total public debt showed that N12.71 trillion or 38.60 per cent of the debt was external while N20.21 trillion or 61.40 per cent of the debt was domestic.

Disaggregating the debts, the Bureau explained that Nigeria’s foreign debt showed that $17.93 billion of the debt was multilateral; $4.06 billion was bilateral from the AFD, Exim Bank of China, JICA, India, and KFW, while $11.17 billion was a commercial loan which are Eurobonds and Diaspora bonds with $186.70 billion as promissory notes.

In a related development, NBS  has put the value of Nigeria’s merchandise trade in Q3 at N8,374.4 billion, representing an increase of 34.15 per cent in Q3, 2020 compared to Q2, 2020. Total trade to date, it said, amounted to N23,203.9 billion. The import component was valued at N5,381.4 billion representing an increase of 33.77 per cent in Q3, 2020 against the level recorded in Q2, 2020 and 38.02 per cent compared to Q3, 2019.