President to hand over N12trn public debt to Buhari

monjola sotubo

May 11, 2015 12:32 PM

Nigeria’s public debt rose from N10.16tn as of March 31, 2014 to N12.06tn as of March 31, 2015, according to statistics from the Debt Management Office.

According to reports, outgoing President, Goodluck Jonathan is set to hand-over a public debt profile of N12.06 trillion to his successor, President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.

The figure includes debts owed by both the Federal Government and the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

The rise in the debt profile was however attributed to the recent decline of the Naira against the dollar.

According to Punch, in dollar terms, the country’s public debt actually reduced by $65.25bn to $63.51bn in the one year period. The exchange rate of the Naira to the dollar was N155.74 on March 31, 2014, while by March 31, 2015, it had fallen to N197.

However, in actual terms, the debt rose by 18.7 per cent due to the Naira decline and other factors such as the global fall in oil prices.

monjola sotubo