The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said the debt owed the federal government of Nigeria by third parties is up to the tune of N5.15trn.
She said this on Friday at the Executive Intelligence Management Course 14 of the National Institute for Security Studies held in Abuja.
She said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government showed its commitment to sustainable development, governance and security by the allocation of financial resources.
Ahmed said, “The security agencies are prioritised, in the allocation of our limited revenues and as an example, about 86 per cent of the 2021 Supplementary Budget was dedicated to the capital and recurrent expenditure needs of the security agencies to supplement the allocations in the 2021 Amended Budget.
“Several initiatives to promote good governance are also funded through the Federal Budget supplemented with the assistance of development partners.”
She also talked about Project Lighthouse and described it as a data-driven artificial intelligence engine that provides the ministry with an intelligence and profiling platform to aid in policy formulation, implementation and impact assessment.
“The second phase of implementation of Project Lighthouse has been approved by the Federal Executive Council and so far, we have been able to aggregate N5.2tn worth of debts owed to Government by third parties, of which N49.7bn of this amount has been recovered,” the minister said.
The New Diplomat had earlier reported that the Debt Management Office (DMO) put Nigeria’s Public Debt Stock at N33.107 trillion (about 87.239 billion dollars), as of March 31, 2021.
A statement obtained from DMO’s website says that the total public Debt Stock comprised of the debt stock of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), respectively.
The debt stock also includes Promissory Notes in the sum of N940.220 billion issued to settle the inherited arrears of the FGN to state governments, oil marketing companies, exporters and local contractors.
The report said that compared to the Total Public Debt Stock of N32.916 trillion as of December 31, 2020, a marginal increase of 0.58 per cent was recorded in the Debt Stock.
Further analysis shows that the increase was in the Domestic Debt Stock which grew by 2.11 per cent from N20.21 trillion in December 2020 to N20.637 trillion as of March 31, 2021.
According to the DMO, the FGN’s share of the domestic debt includes FGN bonds, Sukuk and Green Bonds used to finance infrastructure and other capital projects as well as the N940.220 billion Promissory Notes.
“External Debt Stock declined from USD33.348 billion as of December 31, 2020, to USD32.86 billion due to the redemption by Nigeria of the 500 million dollars Eurobond in January 2021.”
