Advertisement

Amid politicking on who will be the next president of Nigeria, details have emerged that Nigeria’s next president will be burdened with over N24.7 trillion in debt service in the first three years at the helm of affairs.

The amount overwhelms the N19.97 trillion revenue generated by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in his first three years (2015-2018) as president of Nigeria.

Advertisement

The debt servicing plan is contained in FGN 2023 Budget Call Circular published by the Budget Office and obtained by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

According to the document, the federal government of Nigeria is targeting to spend N10.4 trillion on debt servicing by 2025 as more loans mature.

The projected amount to be spent by the FG in 2025 on debt service is more than the total budget size of previous years since Nigeria gained independence, except for 2021 and 2022.

Advertisement

For 2023, in the Budget circular, FG is also projecting debt servicing could gulp at least N6.31 trillion.

The federal government noted that the debt service is made up of N3.295 trillion for Domestic Debt, N1.20 trillion for service on ways & means and N1.814 trillion for Foreign Debt. Additionally, N292.7 billion is provisioned for Sinking Fund to retire maturing loans.

For 2024 another N8.06 trillion is to be spent on debt servicing; this brings the total projected figure to N24.7 trillion in three years.

Already, Nigeria is targeting to spend just close to N5 trillion on debt service this year.

Advertisement

According to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, in the first three months of 2022, N1.94 trillion had been paid to creditors.

This is N310 billion higher than the actual revenue received by the federal government within the same period.

Making the revelation, she hinted at more payment in the coming months.

Advertisement

(Ripples)