The Debt Management Office predicts that Nigeria’s debt would reach N77 trillion next year (DMO).
At the public presentation and breakdown of the key elements of the 2023 Appropriation Act in Abuja, the Director General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, said this.
Nigeria’s public debt was N44.06 trillion as of the third quarter of 2022, according to figures from the DMO, but the government intends to borrow more to pay for the supplemental and 2023 budgets.
“There are a lot of discussions on the ways and means. In addition to the significant cost saving in loan service we would get by securitising it, there is an element of transparency in the sense that it is now reflected in the public debt stock,” the DMO boss added.
“Once it is passed by the National Assembly, it means we will be seeing that figure included in the public debt. You will see a significant increase in public debt to N77 trillion.
“The other area of the debt stock we are trying to highlight is to say the debt stock is also growing from the issuance of promissory notes, which are not true borrowing as such by the government.”
The event’s speakers were not limited to Oniha. Additionally present was Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, who reaffirmed the Federal Government’s intention to discontinue fuel subsidies.
This is consistent with the 18-month extension announced in early 2022, she said.
She claims that the government has set aside N3. 36 trillion for fuel subsidy payments during the 2023 fiscal year, enough to cover the first half of the year.