Ms. Patience Oniha, Director General of the Debt Management Office, made the disclosure while taking questions from journalists at the public presentation and breakdown of the highlights of the 2023 appropriation act on Wednesday in Abuja.
Goldennewsng reports that she said that the incoming administration would inherit approximately N77 trillion in debt by the time President Muhammadu Buhari’s term ends in May.
The budget for 2023, which has a deficit of N11.34 trillion and is worth N21.83 trillion, was signed into law on Tuesday.
The deficit accounts for 5.03 percent of the country’s GDP.
At the budget presentation, Oniha explained that the federal government’s decision to securitize the central bank’s loans (ways and means) would raise debt to approximately N77 trillion.
Even though the DMO’s data showed that Nigeria’s public debt was N44.06 trillion as of the third quarter of 2022, the federal government plans to borrow more money to pay for the supplementary budget and the budget for 2023.
There are numerous discussions regarding the means and methods. She added, “There is an element of transparency in the sense that it is now reflected in the public debt stock. This is in addition to the significant cost savings in loan service we would get by securitizing it.”
“Once it is approved by the national assembly, that amount will be added to the public debt. The public debt will significantly rise to N77 trillion.
“The other aspect of the debt stock that we are attempting to draw attention to is that the debt stock is also expanding as a result of the issuance of promissory notes, which are not actual government borrowing as such.”
