Nigeria’s public debt stock has grown by 7.75% to N35.465 trillion as at end of June 2021, from N32.916 trillion in December 2020,

The new figures obtained from the DMO shows that the increase has moderately raised Debt to GDP as at June to 21.92% from 21.61% as at December 2020.

The figure also shows that external borrowing was 38.66%, while domestic was 61.34%.

While federal government debt stands at 83.07%, States and FCT borrowings has averaged 16.93%.

The medium term debt management strategy which was approved in February increased the debt to GDP ration from the usual 25 Percent to 40 percent.

This has brought Nigeria’s debt to GDP to 35 percent, which is 5percent off the threshold of 40 percent.

Since President Buhari assumed office in 2016, the country’s Public Debt has been growing fast, with High Debt Service to Revenue Ratio as well as concerns for Use of Proceeds, additional borrowing has been on the back of Huge Infrastructure Deficit, Recession, Consecutive Budget Deficit, Low Revenue Base, compounded by dependence on the crude oil.

Nigeria, public debt as a percentage of GDP is 19 percent, but interest payment as a percentage of revenue is 43.2 percent. This has emphasized the need to aggressively grow revenue which has not shown much of an improvement.