The Federal Government has spent a total of $15.55bn on debt servicing between 2019 and 2024, according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Nigeria paid $588.33m in debt service between January and May, while the payment for 2020 was $5.40bn.<\/p>\n
The debt service payments continued to rise in subsequent years, with $2.02bn paid in 2021, $2.34bn in 2022, and $3.43bn in 2023.<\/p>\n
Between January and May 2024, the country has paid $2.18bn in debt service, according to the CBN\u2019s data.<\/p>\n
This is 270.9 per cent increase compared to the first five months of 2019 which was $588.33m.<\/p>\n
The $2.18bn, in May 2024 is nearing half of the $4.8bn projected by Fitch Ratings for the year.<\/p>\n
This increase is despite the government\u2019s assertions that it is shifting its focus towards domestic borrowing. Fitch Ratings also predicts that the country\u2019s external debt servicing will escalate by $400m to $5.2bn next year, raising concerns about Nigeria\u2019s debt sustainability.<\/p>\n
According to the CBN International Payments Data, the FG spent the highest on debt financing within the last five years in 2020 which amounted to $5.40bn.<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s external debt service payments saw a significant increase of $1.1bn, reaching $3.5bn in 2023, according to FBNQuest Research.<\/p>\n
This breakdown comprises $1.9bn in market debt payments and $1.6bn in non-market debt payments. Furthermore, the Federal Government plans to take on additional external debt, including N1.8tn in commercial borrowing and N1.1tn in concessional loans, as outlined in the 2024 budget.<\/p>\n
FBNQuest Research expects a further increase in external debt service payments, mirroring Fitch Ratings\u2019 predictions, due to the government\u2019s plans to access commercial debt markets and anticipated growth in borrowings from concessional sources.<\/p>\n
Recently, the government received $2.25bn from the World Bank to support President Bola Tinubu\u2019s economic reforms.<\/p>\n
The two-fold packages include $1.5bn for the Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilization to Enable Transformation Development Policy Financing Program and $750m for the Nigeria Accelerating Resource Mobilization Reforms Program-for-Results.<\/p>\n
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, said, \u201cWe have undertaken bold and necessary reforms to restore macroeconomic stability and put Nigeria on a path to sustainable and inclusive economic growth. These reforms will create quality jobs and economic opportunities for all Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n
This loan, described as \u201cvirtually a grant\u201d by Edun, is expected to support the government\u2019s economic reforms and development initiatives.<\/p>\n
The report noted that the principal programme development objective is to raise non-oil revenues and safeguard oil and gas revenues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal Government has spent a total of $15.55bn on debt servicing between 2019 and 2024, according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria. In 2019, Nigeria paid $588.33m in debt service between January and May, while the payment for 2020 was $5.40bn. The debt service payments continued to rise in subsequent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-35806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35811,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35806\/revisions\/35811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}