Nigeria’s total debt hits N19.2 trillion

 
THE Debt Management Office (DMO) Monday revealed that Nigeria’s total debt stock increased to N19.159 trillion at the end of first quarter 2017, from the N17.36 trillion at the end of previous quarter.
According to the DMO, the external component of the country’s debt stood at $13.80 billion at the end of March 2017, as against $11.40 billion at the end of December.


But the domestic component of the debt fell to N11.97 trillion, as against N13.88 trillion last year.
A breakdown of the domestic debt component showed that while FGN Bonds was N8.178 trillion, Nigerian Treasury Bills N3.6 trillion, Nigerian Treasury Bond was N191 billion and the FGN Savings Bond N2.068 billion.
The federal government raised a total of $1.5 billion through Eurobond sales in two tranches in the first quarter of this year.
Thus, within a period of two years, current administration has borrowed a total of N3.46 trillion from domestic creditors,‎ an increment of 40.71 percent.


According to the DMO, the official exchange rate of $1 to N306.35 was used in calculating the country’s external debt for March 31, 2017, while the official rate of $1 to N197 was used in determining the foreign debt for March 31, 2015.