Nigeria’s external debt stock as at March 31, 2020 has reduced to $27.665 billion, the Debt Management Office (DMO) of the Presidency has revealed.
The figure is contained in a letter dated August 12, 2020 by the Head, Debt Recording and Settlement Department, Muraizu Nwankwo on behalf of the Director General DMO to activist lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) in response to a request for information on the nation’s external loans of $76 million.
The table of the outstanding external loan, for instance, showed that from the World Bank group and Africa Development Bank group, the country has an outstanding debt of $12.655bn.
Under bilateral arrangement, Nigeria debt stood at $3.842bn while the country has $11.168 million outstanding from the amount received from the Commercial group.
Falana, had in a letter dated August 3, 2020, pursuant to section 1 Freedom of Information Act, 2010 given the DMO seven days to supply information on loans taken from foreign countries and institutions by the government.
The lawyer’s request stated in part: “We have confirmed from the statement issued by your office on or about June 20 2020 that as at March 31, 2020 Nigeria had taken loans worth $79.3 billion from foreign countries and institutions.
“It was also disclosed that the said Chinese loan represents only about 3.94% of Nigeria’s total public debt of $79.303 billion as at March 31, 2020.
“In view of the details of the Chinese loans of $3.1billion which have been made to members of the public in the said statement, we hereby request for information on the remaining foreign loans totaling $76 billion and other loans that have recently been incurred by the Federal Government,” it added.
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