Official: Nigeria’s Total Debt Is Now $67billion, Up 36.7% From March 2013

Nigeria’s foreign debt stands at $9.38 billion, up 40 percent in absolute terms from its last publicly available data of $6.7 billion at the end of March 2013, the Debt Management Office said on Tuesday.

The DMO said local debt was currently at 8.9 trillion naira($55 bln), up 37.1 percent from 6.49 trillion naira at end-March 2013. But the debt-to-GDP ratio is 12.51 percent of its rebased GDP, down from 21 percent at end-March 2013, the DMO said.

Nigeria rebased its economy in April, almost doubling its gross domestic product to more than $500 billion, making it Africa’s top economy.

“This is not an indication that Nigeria can borrow without caution … because our tax GDP ratio is very low,” DMO director general Abraham Nwankwo told reporters.

He said tax revenue as a percentage of GDP was just 6 percent. Nigeria has said it wants to increase the amount it borrows overseas to around 40 percent of all debt over a three to five year period, to take advantage of ultra-loose monetary policy in the West to lower its funding costs.

Foreign borrowing stood at 12 percent of total debt in 2013.

Source: Reuters

[table id=15 /]