The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), yesterday, said that Nigeria’s foreign debt at the end of the first half of 2018 (H1’18) stood at $22.08 billion. This represents a 17 percent rise over the $18.9 billion recorded at the end of 2017.
The breakdown, according to NBS foreign and domestic debt report for second quarter 2018 (Q2’18), shows that foreign borrowings amounting to $10.88 billion were from multilateral agencies, $274.98 million from bilateral (AFD) and another $2.12 billion bilateral from the Exim Bank of China, JICA, India and KFW, while $8.80 billion was commercial debt.
The report also shows that Lagos State has the highest foreign debt profile among the thirty-six states and the FCT accounting for 34.17 percent while Edo (6.57 percent) and Kaduna (5.48 percent) were on the top three most indebted states.
Recall that the Debt Management Office (DMO), last week, disclosed that the domestic debt stock of the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) stood at ₦3.5 trillion as at the first half of 2018 (H1’18), which was 6 percent over the ₦3.3 trillion recorded at the end of December 2017.
Lagos State recorded the highest domestic debt stock at ₦517 billion or 17 percent of the total debt stock of states, followed by Delta (₦223 billion), Rivers (₦191 billion), Akwa Ibom (₦179 billion), and Osun (N136 billion), making up the top five indebted states.
The states with lowest debts are: Anambra (₦2.6 billion), Sokoto (₦25 billion), Yobe (₦27 billion), Kastina (₦31 billion), while while Ebonyi and Jigawa States have ₦34 billion each.