Nigeria spent N.9tn on debts servicing in three months – DMO

The cost of servicing Nigeria’s public debts has increased by 62.9 percent in the first three months of the year.

A data released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) and made available to Ripples Nigeria on Sunday revealed that the nation spent N993.5 billion in the first quarter of 2020, up from N609.3 billion the previous year.

The volume of the external debt was calculated using the N379/1$ exchange rate.

Breakdown of the figure showed that Nigeria spent N380.79 billion on servicing foreign debts from January to March this year.

This was 112.3 percent higher than the N179.1 billion reported in Q1 2020.

The country spent N612.7 billion on servicing domestic debt during the period.

This was a 0.58 percent increase from the N609.1 billion spent in Q1 2020.

Ripples Nigeria had previously reported that in Q1 2021, the country added N191 billion to its debt stock.

This increased Nigeria’s total debt profile to N33.107 trillion as of March 31, up from N32.916 trillion in December 2020.

The country’s domestic debt increased by 2.11 percent from N20.21 trillion in December 2020 to N20.637 trillion at the end of March this year.

However, the external debt fell from $33.348 billion on December 31, 2020, to $32.86 billion in Q1 2021.