Business

Nigeria’s debt hits N35.5tn, says DMO

Published

3 years ago

September 16, 2021

Nigeria’s total debt rose to N35.5 trillion at the end of June 2021, the Debt Management Office has said.

The new figure, it stated, was 7.75 per cent higher than the N32.9 trillion recorded at the close of last year.

Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, said on Wednesday that the external debt accounted for N13.7 trillion or 38.7 per cent while approximately N21.8 trillion was sourced from the local market.

She explained that 83.07 per cent of the total debt was held by the Federal Government while the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory’s borrowings accounted for 16.93 per cent.

The percentage of the FG’s share of the national debt had increased from 81.94 per cent as at December 2020.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had disclosed at a session organised by the African Development Bank that debts of some states were not captured in the figures regarded as national debts.

Oniha said the amount remained within fiscally accepted bound except that not much is done to shore up poor revenue.

She explained that China accounted for about 10 per cent of the external debt (which amounts to approximately N1.37 trillion), while the multilateral organisations had the largest share of 54.9 per cent.

Oniha, in a virtual media chat on Wednesday, said the country risked the debt sustainability issue if it failed to grow the current low revenue profile, which places Nigeria in the poorest category among its peers.

She said, “We should focus on revenue. The good thing about it is that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning has started a programme aimed at growing the revenue profile.

“We must discipline ourselves to follow through to grow our revenue. If we continue to borrow and do nothing about growing our revenue base as other countries have done, we may have a debt sustainability challenge.”

Comparing the tax to gross domestic product of 11 countries, the DG said Nigeria as of 2019 was one the nations with the least ratio.

The selected countries are the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya and Mexico. Others included Canada, Morocco, Ghana and Angola.

While South Africa had the highest tax to GDP of 26.7 per cent, Nigeria sat at the bottom with 5.68 per cent. Angola, which came after Nigeria from the bottom, recorded 9.4 per cent tax to GDP.

Oniha said it was important to interrogate the reasons the country’s huge GDP has not translated to revenue, and that it was time the authorities aggressively pursued income-yielding policies.

She said Nigeria’s debt to GDP remained considerably low at 21.92 per cent, up from 21.61 per cent last year. She, however, said it could increase to 35 per cent when the ways and means facility (WMF), that is, overdrafts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is added to the debt stock.

On the current value of the WMF, the DG said she could only give information on the status at the beginning of the year, when it was estimated at N10 trillion, suggesting that the figure could be higher.

She admitted that the government had overreached the limit set by the CBN Act, stressing that the government was compelled to do so owing to the revenue shortfall.

“We are currently working at converting it to a tenor facility. This is because overdrafts should be cleared when they are due,” the DMO boss started.

Business

PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency

Published

15 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Trends Admin

Port Harcourt Refinery

PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency

No fewer than 200 trucks are set to load petroleum products at the government-owned Port Harcourt Refinery, the presidency has said.

A presidential spokesperson, Sunday Dare, made this known in a statement through his official X handle on Tuesday.

Newstrends had reported that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company on Tuesday announced that Port Harcourt Refinery has resumed operations and crude oil processing after years of inactivity.

PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency

Business

Breaking: CBN increases interest rate to 27.50%

Published

16 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Trends Admin

Breaking: CBN increases interest rate to 27.50%

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the lending interest to 27.50 per cent from 27.25 per cent.

This latest increase in the Monetary Policy Rate came after a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday and concluded Tuesday.

The Monetary Policy Rate measures the benchmark interest rate.

The CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, announced this in Abuja on Tuesday after the MPC meeting, last for the year, held at the apex bank’s headquarters.

He said the MPC voted unanimously to raise the MPR by 25 basis points from 27.25% to 27.50%; and retain the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 50% for Deposit Money Banks and 16% for Merchant Banks.

The CBN governor also said the MPC retained the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30% and Asymmetric Corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the MPR.

Business

Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in Q2 – NBS

Published

20 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Trends Admin

Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in Q2 – NBS

Nigeria’s unemployment rate stood at 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said in its latest report.

The report released on Monday said the unemployment rate decreased compared to the 5.3 per cent recorded in the Q1 of 2024.

The NBS defined the unemployment rate as the share of the labour force (the combination of unemployed and employed people) who are not employed but actively searching and are available for work.

“The unemployment rate for Q2 2024 was 4.3%, showing an increase of 0.1 percentage point compared to the same period last year,” the report stated.

“The unemployment rate among males was 3.4% and 5.1% among females.

“By place of residence, the unemployment rate was 5.2% in urban areas and 2.8% in rural areas. Youth unemployment rate was 6.5% in Q2 2024, showing a decrease from 8.4% in Q1 2024.”

Report also said the unemployment rate among persons with post-secondary education was 4.8 per cent; 8.5 per cent among those with upper secondary education, 5.8 per cent for those with lower secondary education, and 2.8 per cent among those with primary education in Q2 2024.

Employment rate – 76%

The report showed that the employment-to-population ratio, which measures the number of employed workers against the total working-age population, increased to 76.1 per cent in Q2 2024.

“In Q2 2024, 76.1% of Nigeria’s working-age population was employed, up from 73.1% in Q1 2024,” the report stated.

Self-employment – 85.6%

The report further showed that Nigeria’s labour market saw a notable shift as the proportion of self-employed individuals increased in Q2 2024.

It stated, “The proportion of persons in self-employment in Q2 2024 was 85.6%.”