Barely few hours after Nigeria’s House of Representatives approved a $5.8 billion loan for the Buhari administration, the nation’s Debt Management office, DMO has revealed that the country’s total debt as at September this year stood at over N38 trillion.
The figure, however, does not include the new loan approved for the administration by the nation’s lower house on Tuesday, where in the lawmakers failed to get details, from the executive, conditions attached to the loans by the multilateral creditors.
Critics of the National Assembly said the lawmakers, have by that action, failed to hold the executive account in line with their legislative duties.
“The lawmakers have put the cart before the horse by failing to grill the executive arm on the prone and cons of the loans. This should have been done so that Nigerians will know what they are entering into. Surely, we don’t want to fall into the same trap that Uganda fell into recently with China,” an analyst said anonymously.
According to a statement, DMO said the debt is a combination of what is currently owed by the federal government and 36 states in the country to multilateral agencies and global development partners.
“In line with its practice, the Debt Management Office has published Nigeria’s total public debt as at September 30, 2021. The data which includes the total external and domestic debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria, 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory, shows that Nigeria’s public debt was N38.005tn or $92.626bn at the end of Q3 2021,” the debt office said.
Records from DMO indicates that the total debt stock rose by N2.540 trillion in three months from June 30 to September 30, 2021.
This is an “increase of N2.540tn when compared to the corresponding figure of N35.465tn at the end of Q2 2021 was largely accounted for by the $4bn Eurobonds issued by the Government in September 2021.
“The issuance of the $4bn Eurobonds has brought significant benefits to the economy by increasing the level of Nigeria’s external reserves, thereby supporting the naira exchange rate and providing necessary capital to enable the Federal Government finance various projects in the budget.
“The triple tranche $4bn Eurobond, issued in September 2021, was for the implementation of the new external borrowing of $6.18bn in the 2021 Appropriation Act,” the agency said.
On Tuesday, the lower chamber approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s loan request of 5.8 billion dollars and grant of $10 million, without first considering the terms and conditions for the loans from the executive.
The Chairman, House Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management, Hon. Ahmed Safana, said the Presidency can forward the conditions for which the loans were obtained from the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, China Exim bank, Chinese Africa Development Fund, and International Fund for Agricultural Development, to the lawmakers later.
The breakdown of the loans indicate that $2.3 billion will be used for Grid Modernization and Expansion Programme, $290 million for the malaria project, $700 million for the Sustainable Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Project, and $786,382,967 for the Gurara Phase II project among several others.
Safana said, “That the House do consider Final Report of the Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management on the Proposed 2018–2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan.
“That the House do approve the under listed ongoing negotiation of external borrowing of $5,803,364,553.50 and a Grant component of $10,000,000 under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) plan and a Grant component of $10,000,000 (Ten Million USD) under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) plan.
“Funding agency, World Bank (WB), German Consortium, Islamic Development Bank, China Eximbank, Bank of China, International Fund for Agricultural Development.
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