TheCable

The federal government expended a total of $243 million on debt servicing between January and December 2020.

This is contained in the latest public debt stock data released by the Debt Management Office.

The DMO explained that Nigeria’s new borrowings declined from N2.36 trillion in 2017 to N2.01 trillion in 2018 and N1.61 trillion in 2019.

It said the trend was reversed in 2020 due to the economic and social impact of the COVID-19, adding that borrowings grew to N4.20 trillion.

The data showed that a total of $108.66 million, representating 45 percent, was spent to service debt with nine multilateral agencies, including Africa Development Bank and the European Development Fund.

A total of $100.507 million, representating 41 percent, was expended on servicing the 11 Eurobond and one diaspora bond raised by the federal government in 2020, while servicing obligations to bilateral lenders gulped $34.676 million.

In a similar document, the DMO said the government also spent N351.98 billion to service domestic debts between October and December.

A total of N239.455 billion, constituting majority of the domestic debt service cost, was allotted to federal government bonds.

Government obligations through the Nigeria Treasury Bills (NTB) were serviced with N65.171 billion while N331.428 million was expended on savings bond.

A sum of N16.974 billion was used to service federal government SUKUK rentals, N1.808 billion for green bonds, and N3.284 billion for treasury bonds.