Nigeria’s total public debt, comprising the debt obligations of the federal and state governments as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) increased to N144.665 trillion by December 31, 2024, against N97.34 trillion posted at the end of December 2023.
Nigeria’s public debt increased by to N144.67 trillion as of December 2024 from N97.34 trillion recorded at the end of 2023.
Nigeria’s Debt Management Office disclosed this in its latest report on the country’s public debt profile.
DMO report showed that while Lagos, Rivers, and Ogun states are the three most indebted states, with over N900 billion, N364 billion, and N211 billion debts, respectively, Jigawa State is the least indebted state with less than N2billion debt.
Further analysis showed that Nigeria’s public debt surged by N47.32 trillion on a year-on-year basis.
The report also revealed a quarter-on-quarter rise of 1.65 percent from the N142.32 trillion recorded at the end of September 2024, which indicates that the country’s debt profile has been on a steady rise.
The rise in the debt profile of Africa’s most populous nation is mainly driven by external and domestic borrowing.
External debt rose by 83.89 percent to N70.29 trillion in December from 38.22 trillion in the same period in 2023.
Similarly, domestic debt rose by 25.77 percent to N74.38 trillion in December 2024 from 59.12 trillion at the end of December in 2023.
Accordingly, further breakdown of external debt shows that the federal government accounted for N62.92 trillion ($40.98 billion), while states and the FCT held N7.37 trillion ($4.80 billion).
In the domestic debt segment, the federal government held N70.41 trillion ($45.86 billion), with states and the FCT accounting for N3.97 trillion ($2.58 billion).
A breakdown of the external debt component indicates that the federal government accounted for N62.92 trillion ($40.98 billion), while states and the FCT held N7.37 trillion ($4.80 billion) during the review period.
Meanwhile, Lagos State has retained its top spot as the most indebted subnational with over N900 billion (N900,191,716,363.58), followed by Rivers State with over N364 billion (N364,393,017,734.54), and Ogun State with over N211 billion (N211,860,195,068.71).
In the league of 10 most indebted states are Lagos (N900,191,716,363.58), Rivers (N364,393,017,734.54 Ogun State (N211,860,195,068.71), Delta State (N199,575,659,736.39), Bauchi State (N143,948,069,260.24), Niger State (N140,739,523,757.12), Imo State (N126,144,102,593.35), Akwa Ibom State (N122,193,037,697.65), Benue State (N122,575,619,594.08, and Enugu State (N119,284,430,106.62).
In the same vein, 10 states are in the bottom league with the lowest debt profile.
They include Jigawa State with N1,329,234,426.88 (N1.329 billion), Ondo State,(N12,876,176,042.46, Kebbi State (N15,222,009,996.95), Ebonyi State (N18,112,026,850.56), Katsina State ((N25,679,586,232.65), Nasarawa State (N26,597,217,075.38), Borno State (N27,914,959,613.76), Anambra State (N28,684,540,143.05), Kogi State (N41,587,578,673.55), and Yobe State (N42,055,410,877.07).
From the figures released by the DMO, it also emerged that domestic debt service between January and December 2024 gulped a total of N5.969 trillion (N5,969,905,481,331.17).
Interest paid on Federal Government Bonds accounted for N4.689 trillion (N4,689,904,918,278.03) of the debt service obligation during the period.
Also, external debt service gulped a total of $4,656 billion during the same period, with multilateral loans accounting for $2,619 billion, bilateral loans – $570.67 million, and commercial loans, especially Eurobond, chalking up $1,152 billion, among others.
