The Debt Management Office (DMO) says the alarm created around the country’s projected public debt by a segment of the media was unnecessary.
The Director-General, Mrs Patience Oniha, said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
Oniha was reacting to reports by a segment of the media that next government would inherit N77 trillion in debts.
She stated that Nigeria’s debt would only attain that level when Ways and Means Advances (WMA) from CBN were securitised.
According to her, the securitisation of WMA will enable the DMO to include the debt in public debt stock.
This will expectedly improve debt transparency.
Recall that at the public presentation of the 2023 Appropriation Act, Oniha explained the projected debt stock, using the actual public debt stock of N44 trillion as a basis.
She stated that the total debt stock included external and domestic debts of the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the FCT.
“Taking into account a number of ongoing activities, the total public debt stock; that is the external and domestic debts of the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the FCT would be about N77 trillion.
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“The additional debts to the public debt data in 2023 include the N1 trillion WMA to finance the supplementary budget.
“This has already been approved by the National Assembly (NASS).
“It also includes N22.72 trillion WMA currently under the consideration by the NASS.
“The projected debt stock for May 2023 also includes N5.567 trillion.
“This represents about 50 per cent of the new borrowing of N11.134 trillion in the 2023 Appropriation Act.
“It also includes new Promissory Notes (PN) estimated at N1.5 trillion.
“The government will issue PN to settle arrears of the FGN and judgement debts,’’ the statement read.
According to the DG, the debt stock also included estimates for new borrowings by state governments and the FCT.
“These figures, show that WMA of N22.72 trillion, which represents funds already spent, is the largest source of the increased.”
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