With the additional N10 trillion from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ways and means, the debt stock of Africa’s largest economy is now N42 trillion, Patience Oniha, director general of the Debt Management Office (DMO), said on Thursday.
Nigeria’s public debt stock stood at N32. 22trn as at September 30, 2020, according to the DMO.
Oniha, who disclosed this at a virtual stakeholders’ meeting, said the Office is in talks with the CBN to convert the N10 trillion ways and means to a 30-year facility.
“We have reached fairly advanced stage in the ways and means balances at the Central Bank,” Oniha said.
Ways and means is the government overdraft facility with the Central Bank, which the DMO has been trying to manage for some time, she explained.
“I think from 2018 we actively started looking at it and we are at that point where all we need is to finalise one term with the CBN and we are good to implement. The figure we worked on is about N10 trillion and it is going to be added to the debt stock. So far it is not added. It is not like credit that we negotiated so it is an overdraft managed by the accountant general,” the DMO director-general said.
“So the process we are going through now will be structured. The offer we made to the CBN is to convert it to 30-year facility, you know, amortising. We will not have N10 trillion in one day to pay. So that will come unto the debt stock, that means if you add only that N10 trillion, we are already at N42 trillion using our September 2020 period. So that is another reason for the 40 percent debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” she said.
