The Debt Management Office has raised concerns over Nigeria’s increasing debt profile.The figure represents an increase of 75.29 per cent or N37.53 trillion compared to N49.85 trillion recorded at the end of March 2023.
“The major addition to the Public Debt Stock was the inclusion of the N22.712 trillion securitized FGN’s Ways and Means Advances.” The DMO had earlier projected that Nigeria’s public debt burden may hit N77 trillion following the National Assembly’s approval of the request by former President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the CBN’s Ways and Means Advances.
However, the latest data showed that the current debt stock of N87.38 trillion exceeded the DMO’s projection by N10.38 trillion. In its 2022 Debt Sustainability Analysis Report, the DMO warned that the Federal Government’s projected revenue of N10 trillion for 2023 could not support fresh borrowings. DMO stated that the government must pay attention to revenue generation by implementing far-reaching revenue mobilisation initiatives and reforms including the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives and all its pillars with a view to raising the country’s tax revenue to GDP ratio from about 7 per cent to that of its peer.