The federation’s budget office reports that in the first nine months of 2023, the government spent N5.78 trillion on debt servicing.
The agency disclosed that the amount is greater than the prorated prediction of N4.91 trillion in the 2023 budget in its third quarter (Q3) budget implementation report, which was released on Monday.
This represents an increase of N869.38 billion (17.68 percent).
The budget office said interest on ways and means during the period amounted to N1.69 trillion.
According to the office, “The sum of N2,901.60 billion was used for domestic debt servicing, a difference of 430.27 billion (17.41 percent) from the prorated projection for the period, while N1,189.32 billion was spent on external debt servicing during the period under review”
“A total of N1,225.73 trillion was released and cash-backed to MDAs for their 2023 capital projects and programmes during the period.
“Available fiscal data revealed that only N962.84 billion (78.56 percent) of the total amount released and cash-backed was utilized by MDAs as at 30 September, 2023.”
According to the budget office, there was an N4.4 trillion fiscal imbalance between Q1 and Q3 of last year as a consequence of the government’s income and spending output.
According to the office, this is N4.29 trillion (49.32 percent) below the projected N8.7 trillion deficit for the reviewed period last year.
“It was however below the N5,991.12 billion deficit that was recorded in corresponding period of 2022,” the office said.
“The deficit was financed through domestic borrowing of N3,430.0 billion thereby reflecting a negative net financing of N979.49 billion in the period under review.”
As reported by the budget office, the country’s GDP expanded by 2.54% in the third quarter of 2023, indicating that Nigeria’s economy is still recovering from its second recession in six years.
The agency ascribed the favorable growth outcome for the reviewed quarter to the implementation of certain policies aimed at reducing the adverse consequences of external disruptions and crude oil theft.
