The budget office of the federation says the government spent N5.78 trillion on debt servicing in the first nine months of 2023.
In its 2023 third quarter (Q3) budget implementation report released on Monday, the office said the figure is higher than the prorated projection of N4.91 trillion in the 2023 budget. 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.
“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,” the office said.
“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.”
“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.”
