The President, Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, said national debt rose from N39.6tn in December 2021 to N42.8tn in June 2022.
He stated that the budget for the previous fiscal year had a deficit of N4.6tn, which was 63% of the estimated deficit for the fiscal year 2022.
Buhari made the announcement while presenting the 2023 appropriation bill to the National Assembly in Abuja.
Explaining further, he said the rising deficit was due to high debt servicing resulting from rising interest rates.
According to him, the Federal Government disbursed N1.48tn for recurrent expenditures for all its Ministries, Department and Agencies in the past year.
He argued that reducing government spending too drastically will be socially destabilising. Therefore, the regime is focused on increasing economic activity and by extension, revenue.
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Nigeria total higer debt service reach N42.8 trillion and Buhari is presenting N19.76 trillion 2023 budget ?? pic.twitter.com/TuxLgO8eaO
— Comr. Abiyos Roni©️ (@AbbaM_Abiyos) October 7, 2022