The Debt Management Office (DMO) said in its report that the federal government spent N1.24 trillion to service debts in the first quarter of2023.
According to the report, the government spent N874.13 billion between January and March, Nigeria on domestic debt service and $801.36 million (N368.87 billion) to service debt, bringing the total to N1.24 trillion.
In the last quarter of 2022, Nigeria spent N406.77 billion on domestic debt service and $312.27 million (N143.74 billion) on external debt service, bringing the total to N550.51 billion.
From the DMO figures it shows that the federal government’s debt obligations grew by 55.71 percent between the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.
The DMO used the CBN exchange rate of $1=N460.3 to convert the external debt service components to the naira.
For domestic debt service in the first quarter of 2023, the federal government paid N56,466,385,798.05 as interest on Nigeria treasury bills; N723,957,871,169.59 interest on FGN bonds; N8,167,315,068.49 as rentals on Sukuk; N622,808,510.21 as interest on FGN Savings Bond and N84,915,150,796.00 on promissory notes.
“FGN Bonds and NTBs that matured during the quarter were refinanced and the reported figures excluded Sinking Fund Charges of the sum of N180, 446,143.00 in respect of (IRO) treasury bonds managed by the CBN,” it said.
Regarding external debt obligations, the DMO said multilateral bodies were paid $214,459,449.33; bilateral entities $136,474,716.28 while $450,428,973.15 was paid for commercial papers.
