EXCLUSIVE; NIGERIA'S DEBT PROFILE

Nigeria’s debt profile, according to recent reports emanating from the country’s Debt Management Office in Abuja, now stands at N10.84 trillion as at 30 September, showing a N2.52 trillion or 30.29 percent rise in the last one year between 30 September, 2013 and 30 September, 2014.
The reports also put external debts of both the federal and state governments at $9.52 billion or N1.48 trillion.
While the domestic debt profile of the Federal Government alone was $49.12 billion or N7.65 trillion as at 30 September, 2014, that of the states was put at $10.97 billion or N1.71 trillion. The Federal Government’s domestic debt was further broken into Bond constituting N4.6 trillion which makes up 60.12 percent of the total domestic debt, Treasury Bills of N2.74 trillion making up 35.76 percent of the domestic debt and Treasury Bonds which amounts to N315.39 billion or 4.12 percent.

For the states, Lagos owes $1.02bn, Kaduna owes $245.51 million, Cross River owes $120.21 million, Ogun owes $116.69 million, Bauchi owes $111.61 million, Oyo owes $80.11 million, Borno owes $16.07 million, Plateau owes $22.99 million, Taraba owes $24.06 million, Benue, $28.79m while Delta owes $24.7 million.
To better understand the consequences of this on the country, the government spent N591.76 billion servicing the debt in 2013. In 2014, N712 billion will be spent on debt servicing, in 2015, the amount that will be spent on servicing debt is N684bn, while N684bn would be used to service the country’s debt in 2016.