Despite Paying $300 Million Debt, Nigeria’s Foreign Reserves Increased by $250 Million

Nigeria’s foreign reserves increased by $250 million in the last seven days to $39.138 billion despite the country redeeming a $300 million diaspora bond.

According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), the five-year bond was issued on June 27, 2017 to finance the deficit of the 2017 Appropriation Act.

However, on June 27, 2022 the DMO announced that the Federal Government had redeemed the bond in a show of commitment to its obligations.

An analysis of the nation’s foreign reserves revealed that despite the huge payment, Nigeria’s reserves increased from $38.925 billion on June 24, 2022 to $39.135 billion on June 29, 2022, representing an increase of $250 million.

Still, Nigeria’s rising debt profile remained a concern given the nation’s weak revenue generation and rising population. Many experts have said rising debt and the cost of servicing debt is responsible for the nation’s weak infrastructure growth and other developments.

In the first quarter of 2022 alone, Nigeria spent N896.6 billion on debt servicing, according to data from the DMO. A total sum of N668.69 billion of the amount was spent on domestic debt servicing while another $548.79 million or N227.87 billion was dumped on external debt servicing.

In the first three months of the year, Nigeria’s total debt jumped by N2.04 trillion to N41.60 trillion, up from N39.56 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2021.

In a recent interview, the Deputy President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Gabriel Idahosa, said, “Essentially, our debt service is almost equal to our revenue. At some point, it was about 96 per cent of our revenue. So, really, we are borrowing to fund the government. Almost all our revenue is going into servicing debts. That’s what the numbers are looking like right now. At the beginning of the year, the estimate was that about 80 per cent of our revenue will go into debt service.

“If you look at revenue generated and debt serviced, they are almost equal. It means that everything we generate is actually going into servicing debts. That’s the situation we find ourselves and it’s going to continue unfortunately because the fuel subsidy estimate of N4trn this year, with the continuous rise in the price of crude oil, fuel subsidy could take as much as N6trn.”