• Federal Government borrowing not transparent, its purpose not known, says economist
The country’s debt rose by N20.8tn between July 2015 and December 2020, data obtained from the Debt Management Office on Wednesday showed.
This period corresponds with the Presidency Muhammadu Buhari who assumed leadership of the country on May 29, 2015.
According to the statistics obtained from the DMO, Nigeria’s total debt as of June 30, 2015 stood at N12.12tn.
However, as of December 31, 2020, the country’s debt portfolio had risen to N32.92tn.
This shows that within a period of 66 months (five and half years), the country’s debt has risen by N20.8tn.
Nigeria owes China $3 714bn ― DMO | Tribune Online tribuneonlineng.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tribuneonlineng.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In the just concluded week, the Federal
Government further took another bold step, as regards its promise to deliver electricity to more households in Nigeria, as it signed a contract of the pre-engineering phase of the Presidential Power Initiative project (previously known as Nigerian Electrification Roadmap) with Siemens.
FG commenced this project in July 2019 when it signed a Letter of Agreement with Siemens AG on the Nigerian Electrification Roadmap which is meant to upgrade the country’s electricity network to achieve operational capacity of 25,000 megawatts from the current average of around 4,500 megawatts.
Hence, on July 29, 2020 the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the payment of EUR15.21 million (N6.94 billion) offshore and N1.71 billion onshore as part of government counterpart funding for the power deal to show commitment.
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Everest Amaefule
Nigeria has more than $5.83bn foreign loans that have been approved but not yet disbursed, the Debt Management Office has said.
The DMO on its portal on Sunday listed a number of foreign loans that were to be disbursed as of December 31, 2020.
The disbursement of the loans will take the country’s total foreign debt commitment to more than $37.8bn.
Our correspondent reports that the country’s external debt as of September 30, 2020 stood at $31.99bn.
The outstanding loans from the group stands at about $3.27bn.
Another $1.25bn is supposed to come from the Export-Import Bank of China. Apart from multilateral agencies, China has remained the nation’s largest creditor.