The Debt Management Office's (DMO) director general, Patience Oniha, predicts that by the time President Muhammadu Buhari's term ends in May, the incoming administration will have racked up about N77 trillion in debt.
Oniha said this while speaking with media on Wednesday in Abuja during a presentation and analysis of the key points of the 2023 appropriation legislation in front of the general public.
According to the federal government's minister of finance, budget, and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, borrowing will be used to close the deficit.
According to the minister, the oil business would only account for 22% of total earnings, while non-oil industries would account for 78%.
The deficit will need to be covered, according to Ahmed, by N7.04 trillion in domestic borrowing, N1.76 trillion in foreign borrowing, N1.77 billion in multilateral and bilateral loan drawdowns, and N206.18 billion in privatisation gains.
A N21.83 trillion (2023) budget with a N11.34 trillion deficit was signed into law by Buhari on Tuesday.
A $5.03 billion deficit, or 5.03 percent of GDP, exists (GDP).
According to Oniha, the federal government's move to securitize the debts of the central bank will cause the debt to rise to about N77 trillion (ways and means).
By the third quarter of 2022, the DMO projected that Nigeria's national debt will total N44.06 trillion. The supplemental budget and the 2023 budget, however, will still require additional borrowing on the part of the federal government.
“There are a lot of discussions on the ways and means. In addition to the significant cost saving in loan service we would get by securitising it, there is an element of transparency in the sense that it is now reflected in the public debt stock,” she said.
“Once the national assembly passes it, we will see that figure included in the public debt. You will see a significant increase in public debt to N77 trillion.
“The other area of the debt stock we are trying to highlight is to say the debt stock is also growing from the issuance of promissory notes, which are not true borrowing as such by the government. “