Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, the Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), said that Nigeria’s total debt profile as at December 31, 2016 was $57.39 billion (N17.36 trillion).
He made this disclosure while defending the agency’s 2017 budget before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts in Abuja on Thursday. Nwankwo said the amount included domestic and foreign debts owed by the country as at the end of 2016.
While giving a breakdown of the debt profile, he said the external debt profile stood at $11.41 billion (N3.48 trillion) and the domestic debt stock stood at $45.98 billion (N13.88 trillion).
According to him, the total debt stock of N17. 36 trillion owed by the country included debts of the Federal Government, the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Nwankwo also said that the difference was due to the projected debt service payments in respect of new financing that was not fully utilized, as only few loans became effective during the period.
The DG pointed out that the domestic debt stock of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the 36 states and the FCT accounted for about 80 per cent of the total debt, while their external debt stock accounted for about 20 per cent.
He assured that though Nigeria’s debt profile was on the increase, it was not in a precarious economic situation that would warrant seeking for debt relief. Nwankwo added that in spite of the recession, the economic indices had not portrayed Nigeria as a weak economy to warrant seeking for debt relief.
“Nigeria is not in a position to beg for debt forgiveness. “In spite of the present state of the economy, the country is still counted as a strong economy among other countries. The economic indicators show that Nigeria has a strong economy,’’ he said.
He said if borrowing would be genuinely committed to infrastructural development, it would go a long way in the move to develop the economy.
