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Tayo Busayo, Abuja

 

DAILY COURIER – Nigeria’s public debt stock increased from N35.46 trillion ($86.57 billion) in the second quarter of 2021 to N42.84 trillion ($103.31 billion) in the corresponding period in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said in the nation’s Domestic and Foreign Debt Report for Q2 2021 to Q2 2022, released in Abuja on Wednesday.

Public debt stock includes external and domestic debts. However, the NBS said external debt stood at N13.71 trillion ($33.46 billion) in the second quarter of 2021 and increased to N16.61 trillion ($40.06 billion) in the second quarter of 2022.

The NBS also said domestic debt was N21.75 trillion ($53.10 billion) in the second quarter of 2021, but increased to N26.23 trillion ($63.24 billion) in the second quarter of 2022.

“This shows that public debt (in national currency), grew by 20.81 percent in the second quarter of 2022 from the figure recorded in the second quarter of 2021.”

In a breakdown, the bureau stated that Lagos State recorded the highest domestic debt of N797.30 billion in the second quarter of 2022, while this was followed by Delta at N378.87 billion, and Ogun at N241.78 billion.

Jigawa recorded the lowest debt at N45.13 billion, followed by Ebonyi and Kebbi at N59.11 billion and N60.41 billion respectively.

It added that Lagos State also recorded the highest external debt stock of $1.27 billion in the second quarter of 2022, followed by Kaduna State at $586.77 million and Edo at $268.31 million.

However, the report added that “the lowest external debt stock was recorded in Borno at $18.69 million, followed by Taraba and Yobe at $22.28 million and $23.09 million respectively.”