Nigeria spent N1.47 trillion on debt servicing in the first six months of 2021, official data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) have shown.
A breakdown of the data shows that the country spent N1.02 trillion on both domestic and external debt servicing in the first quarter of the year, while N445.45 billion was spent in the second quarter of the year.
From January to March 2021, Nigeria spent N612.71 billion on domestic debt servicing, while it spent $1 billion (N410.33 billion) on external debt servicing, while from April to June 2021, N322.7 billion was spent on domestic debt servicing and $299 million (N122.7 billion) on external debt servicing.
For domestic debt, Nigeria spent N219.29 billion in January, N125.09 billion in February, N270.33 billion in March, N258 billion in April, N42.4 billion in May, and N22.3 billion in June.
In Q1, the government focused on principal repayments, while in Q2, the government focused on interest payments.
A breakdown of the data for Q2 shows that the government spent N322.7 billion on the payment of interest, with N50.3 billion expended on the redemption of matured Nigeria Treasury Bills.
For external debt servicing in Q1, commercial loans had 76 per cent with a cost of $763.04 million (N313.10 billion), multilateral had 13 per cent with a cost of $134.04m (N55 billion), and bilateral had 11 per cent with a cost of $106.33 million (N43.63 billion).
For external debt servicing in Q2, commercial loans had 53 per cent with a cost of $157 million (N64.4 billion), multilateral had 35 per cent with a cost of $103.7 million (N42.5 billion), and bilateral had 13 per cent with a cost of $38.2 million (N15.7 billion).
Meanwhile, the DMO has opened the October savings bonds offer to investors.
In a circular on it’s website, it said it was offering the Federal Government’s two-year and three-year savings bonds.
According to the circular, the two-year FGN savings bond will be due for redemption on October 13, 2023, at 6.899 per cent per annum, while the three-year offer will be due on October 13,2024, at 7.899 per cent per annum.
The offer has a closing date of October 8.
