The Federal Government has borrowed around £2.13 trillion from the domestic capital markets so far this year. Data from The Nation’s Economic Intelligence showed that the government is borrowing more by all means as risk-averse investors rush to issue bonds.
Data show that in most cases the government has exceeded its borrowing calendar to offset the oversubscription of bids.
This data shows that between January and February 2023, the government raised N2.129 trillion through the regular issuance of bonds, retail savings bonds and Treasury bills.
At this rate, the government could exceed her 2023 estimated domestic borrowing of N7.04 trillion.
Given the higher risk profile and higher cost of issuing international debt following sovereign rating downgrades by global rating agencies, that have been indications that it may have raised government bonds by issuing debt components of N.8 trillion N10.78 trillion deficit.
Total debt issuance over the past two months is up more than 50% from Q4 2022, according to data. This constitutes of N27.7468 billion by the Nigerian Treasury Bonds (NTB) and N533.03 million by the Federal Government of Nigeria Savings Bonds (FGNSB) through regular bond auctions. Total public debt reached Naira 44.06 trillion in Q3 2022. this has sparked a long-running national debate about rising levels of debt and the burden of sustainability at a time of declining government revenues.
The federal government has set its budget size at N20.51 trillion. This is with total revenue of N9.73 trillion in 2023 and plans to borrow N10.78 trillion in 2023.
