The Nigerian government committed N609.135 billion to servicing its debts in the first quarter of this year, the debt office has said.
The debt status statistics released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Thursday demonstrated that interest paid on Nigeria Treasury Bills (NTB) came to N111.605 billion while that paid on Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Bonds stood at N488.935 billion.
Government’s spending in servicing FGN Savings Bonds accumulated to N392.794 billion between January and March just as Rentals, which was paid only March, stood at N8.202 billion.
The debt service figure for January across all instruments totalled N251.352 billion, that of February was N158.123 billion while that of March was N199.658 billion.
Read also: Nigeria’s debt to China hit $3.12bn in Q1 –DMO
Before the release of the domestic debt service status yesterday, the DMO had put the country’s total debt stock as of 31st March at N28.628 trillion, made up of N18.641 trillion ($51.637 billion) domestic debt and N9.987 trillion ($27.665 billion) foreign debt.
A related document issued by the debt office Thursday detailed the debt position of all the 36 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory between January and March, which summed up to N4.106 trillion.
Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital, ranked first among the most indebted states with a debt portfolio of N444.227 billion, Rivers came next with N266.936 billion followed by Akwa Ibom, whose debt stock was N240.030 billion.
States with the lowest exposure were Yobe (N29.294 billion), Anambra (N33.917 billion) and Jigawa (N36.020).
Opinions