Nigeria’s total debt rises by N7.38tn, Lagos leads highest state debtors

Within one year, Nigeria’s total public debt grew by N7.38 trillion, to close the second quarter of 2022 with N42.84 trillion ($103.31 billion), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on Wednesday.

The country’s total debt stock stood at N35.46 trillion (86.57 billion dollars) as at the end of Q2 2021. This is a 20.81 per cent year-on-year growth.

Breakdown of the public debt showed external debt accounted for N16.61 trillion ($40.06 billion) during the period in review, surpassing the N13.71 trillion ($33.46 billion) posted in the second quarter of 2021.

Similarly, the domestic debt rose from N21.75 trillion ($53.10 billion) in the second quarter of 2021, to N26.23 trillion ($63.24 billion) at the end of the same period this year.

In the NBS report of Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt, the bureau said Lagos State has the highest domestic debt of N797.30 billion in the second quarter of 2022. Delta State was next with N378.87 billion, followed by Ogun State which accounted for N241.78 billion.

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The lowest debtor is Jigawa State, which recorded N45.13 billion, Ebonyi N59.11 billion and Kebbi has N60.41 billion debt.

It was gathered that the highest external debt is held by Lagos State, accounting for $1.27 billion during the period under review, Kaduna State owes $586.77 million and Edo has $268.31 million.

Borno held the lowest external debt stock of $18.69 million, Taraba and Yobe owe $22.28 million and $23.09 million respectively.

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