Nigeria’s Huge Debt Profile Worries DMO, Says Nigeria Spending Too Much on Overhead
- Nigeria's debt-to-service ratio is worrisome, according to the Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha
- Oniha said Nigeria has been running on a deficit for many years and there is a need to address the issue to debt-to-revenue
- The DMO boss said the bulk of the borrowing is from the federal government and is used for capital projects
The Debt Managing Office (DMO) has raised concerns about the Nigerian government’s debt service-to-revenue ratio.
The government’s projected deficit for next year is N11.30 trillion, a 54 per cent increase from the previous year’s budget’s estimated deficit.
Source: Twitter
Patience Oniha, the Director-General of DMO, said the reasons for the high debt stock during her appearance before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance over the Medium Term and Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper for 2023-2025 on Thursday, September 1, 2022.
The Punch quoted the DMO DG as saying that Nigeria’s total debt stock got to N41.6 million as of March 2022 and that Nigeria has been in a deficit for many years.
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She said the deficit had affected the country’s revenue profile
According to her, borrowing would continue unless the personnel, overhead and capital expenditure issues are properly addressed in the budget.
Oniha said that as of December 2020, the total debt stock of Nigeria stood at N32.92 trillion and that by December 2021, it had risen to N39.556 trillion, and by March this year, it hit N41.6 trillion.
The federal government does the bulk of the borrowings, Oniha told the House of Reps.
BusinessDay reports that Oniha debunked the assertions that the loans are not used for anything meaningful and cited projects done by the federal government from the loans.
The DMO boss cited the Abuja international airport, rail, Kano airport, and the new Enugu International Airport.
“The rail lines have also come from borrowings. So, it is not that it is a zero performance. Those things generate revenue in some other countries,” he said.
Debt Stock: Nigeria's most indebted geopolitical zones in 2022
Legit.ng reported that according to data from the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria's total debt stock has hit over N41 trillion as of March 2021.
The breakdown of the debt, tabulated by Legit.ng shows that the various states in Nigeria contribute immensely to the national debt stock.
According to reports, Nigeria's total public debt stock rose from N39.56 trillion in December 2021 to N41.60 trillion, $100.07 billion in the first three months of 2022, January to March, the Debt Management Office (DMO) revealed yesterday.
Source: Legit.ng
