By Bashir Olanrewaju
Nigeria plans to borrow as much as 6 trillion naira, or 46% of its proposed 2021 budget of 13.1 trillion naira, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said.
The funds, which will bring Nigeria’s total public debt to 38.7 trillion, will be raised primarily through local debt markets, through the sale of bonds and treasury bills, and foreign debt issues such as eurobond, and borrowing from multilateral institutions.
Borrowings are “projected, based on existing approvals, to rise to 32.51 trillion by December 31, 2020 and N38.68 trillion by December 31, 2021,” Ahmed told the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts during a presentation in Abuja.
The funds will be raised through the Debt Management Office (DMO), which plans and executes the government’s public borrowing plans by selling treasury bills through the central bank, and issuing sovereign bonds and foreign-curreny denominated debt instruments instruments, such as eurobonds, to investors.
The DMO auctioned 30 billion naira worth of 15-year and 25-year bonds on 21 October at interest rates of between 9.80 percent for and 12.50 percent.