Borrowings by Nigeria’s federal government have risen by 278.03 per cent between 2015 and 2021, public debt data as of December 31, 2021, by the Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha, shows.
According to the document, the new borrowing allocation for 2015 was N1.46tn, which was 90.17 per cent of the N1.62tn budget deficit.
For 2021, the allocation for new borrowing was N5.49tn, which was 85.11 per cent of the N6.45tn budget deficit, Punch reported.
On the source of the figures, the document read in part, “2015 comprises 2015 Appropriation Act and supplementary budget of N575bn for the same year. 2021 comprises 2021 Appropriation Act and supplementary budget of N802bn for the same year”.
The document further identified issues around the public debt level, which include fast-growing debts, high Debt Service to Revenue Ratio, and concerns around the use of proceeds from the debts.