After a loan-to-bond swap and new borrowings to fund the 2023 budget, the Debt Management Office chief stated, Nigeria’s total public debt could reach 77 trillion naira ($172 billion) this year, up from 44 trillion naira in September.
After some lawmakers questioned the plan, the Senate delayed a decision on the president’s request to convert $53 billion in temporary loans to the government from the central bank into 40-year bonds last week.
Patience Oniha, the chief of debt management, stated on Wednesday, “If that is approved sometime this year…, it means you will be seeing that figure included in the public debt.”
On Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 21.83 trillion naira budget for 2023 into law. He also said that if parliament rejects the loan-to-bond swap request this year, the country would have to pay an additional 1.8 trillion naira, or $4 billion, in interest.
According to Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed, the loan conversion would result in total public debt rising to 35.3% of GDP from 22.97%.
Ahmed stated that the new borrowings and conversion would increase domestic debt to 70% of total public debt in 2023, up from 61.1 percent currently.
After successfully securing a write-off of foreign debt by the London and Paris clubs in 2007, the Obasanjo government paid off $2.11 billion in foreign debt in 1999.
The Yar’adua/Jonathan administration added $1.39 billion to what they met, and the Jonathan administration added $3.8 billion, bringing the nation’s total foreign debt to $7.3 billion when that administration ended in 2015.
By December 2020, Nigeria’s external loan had reached $28.57 billion, which meant that the Buhari administration had accumulated $21.27 billion more than any other government since 1999.