ECONOMY: Buhari drags Nigeria into additional N560bn debt in 3 months

Figures released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Wednesday shows that the country’s debt has increased by N560 billion.

According to the DMO, the total debt stock as of March 31, 2019, stood at N24.9 trillion compared to the N24.3 trillion as of December 31, 2018.

The debt document released by the DMO showed that the CBN exchange rate of N306.95/$ was used in converting domestic debts to dollars.

The breakdown showed that the total external debt stood at N7.8 trillion ($25.6 billion) while domestic debt was N17 trillion ($55.6 billion).

Foreign debt constituted 31.5% of the total debt stock while domestic debt constituted 68%.

According to the DMO, the increase in the debt stock was “was accounted for largely by Domestic Debt which grew by N458.363 Billion.

Increases, the DMO added were recorded “in the domestic debt stock of the FGN, states and the FCT”.

External debt also increased by N101.646 billion during the same period.

“The domestic debt stock for five states, (Anambra, Borno, Ebonyi, Ekiti and Lagos) were as at December 31, 2018, and the domestic debt stock figure for Rivers state was as at September 30, 2018,” the document read.

According to the debt office, the total debt to GDP ratio is 19.03% which is within the 25% debt limit imposed by the government.