Economy still at risk as domestic debt service overshoots quarterly revenue
Facts from latest report from the Debt Management Office (DMO) have shown that Domestic debt servicing gulps N609.13b in Q1, a strong indication that the entire economy is still at risk of instability.
Otherwise, the Federal Government has spent N609.135 billion to service domestic debt in the first quarter of 2020. The Debt Management Office (DMO) released this figure yesterday in Abuja. According to the DMO, between January and March, 2020, the Federal Government paid interest on Nigerian Treasury Bill (NTB) to the tune of N111.605 billion. Other obligations which the Federal Government met within the first three months of the year include: interest on FGN Bonds, N488.935 billion; FGN Savings Bonds debt servicing N392.794 billion and; Rentals N8.201 billion. Giving a month-by-month breakdown of debt servicing activities of the government, the DMO stated that in January 2020, the government serviced debts with N251.352 billion.
In February it paid out interests amounting to N158.123 billion and in March doled out N199.658 billion to service debt. Within the first quarter of the year, the DMO had released the country’s total public debt stock which it put at N28.628 trillion, as at March 31, 2020. This was made up of N18.641 trillion ($51.637 billion) domestic debt and N9.987 trillion ($27.665 billion) external debt. Also in the first quarter of the year, all the States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory were indebted to the combined tune of N4.106 trillion with Lagos state leading the pack with total debt stock of N444.227 billion.
