The Nigerian government spent over $2.24 billion of revenue to service matured external debts between January and June 2024.
This is according to data obtained from the Debt Management Office and analysed by TimesNow.com.ng.
A breakdown of the figures shows that in the first quarter of 2024 (January to March), the Nigerian government spent $1.12 billion to service debts owed to various foreign entities.
In the second quarter of 2024 (April to June), another $1.12 billion of government revenue was used to repay debts owed to countries and financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.
TimesNow.com.ng observed that interest and service fees alone are the major reasons Nigeria’s debt servicing is high.
In the first quarter, the total interest payment and service fee costs were $228.67 million and $53.87 million, respectively.
While in the second quarter, the interest payment increased to $403.68 million, and the service fee stood at $25.968 million.
In the first quarter, the DMO revealed that the highest amount paid to service debt was for multilateral loans, which totalled $634.39 million, followed by commercial loans($282.56 million($282.56 million) and bilateral, which was $197.43 million.
Multilateral loans are funds borrowed from lenders such as the World Bank, IMF, and African Development Bank (AFDB).
A breakdown of the $634.39 million debt repayment shows:
Bilateral loans are funds that Nigeria borrowed from other countries.
Here is a breakdown of the payments made to countries that lent Nigeria funds for due debt in the first quarter of 2024.
DMO revealed that in the second quarter, the highest debt service payment made by the Nigerian government was to multilateral creditors, which stood at $672.01 million.
For countries, a total of $43.92 million was used to service debt to 3 countries, and they are:
No payment was made to China and Japan in the second quarter 2024.
Other breakdowns show that commercial loans’ debt service repayment gulped $404.45 million while matured Eurobondrepayment to investors stood at $293.73 million.
The good news is that Nigeria is not defaulting on its debts collected over the years.
In a similar development, TimesNow.com.ng earlier reported that after years of back and forth, the federal government has repaid airlines 98% of their delayed funds in the country.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) confirmed the development, which has called for the final clearance of the remaining 2%.
