Director General, Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr Abraham Nwankwo, yesterday put Nigeria’s domestic debt at N8.9 trillion  while the external debt stock has risen to   $9.3billion.
Speaking  at a one-day seminar organised for the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN)  in Abuja, Nwankwo said that the country was not at risk with the debt stock while  cautioning against  further borrowing.
According to him, Nigeria still has  a very favourable debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio of 12.5 per cent against the 25 per cent global threshold .
On bond issuance by some state governors who are already at the twilight of their tenure, Nwankwo disclosed  that government was a continuum and so successive governments can continue from where their predecessors stopped.
The DMO boss also  said that in as much as the borrowing by any state governor was tied to a particular project, the approving authorities can approve of it.
The Federal Government, he said,  needed to guarantee any bond by state governments before such deal can scale through.
He  disclosed that Nigerian companies had issued bonds worth $3 billion stating  that the action was made possible because of the successes recorded in the issuance of Nigerian Sovedeign Eurobonds by the DMO.
“For the first time in Nigeria’s economic history, the private sector has  been enabled to access long-term funds from both the domestic and international capital markets.
“The successful issuances of three Nigerian Sovereign Eurobonds in the International Capital Market – one in 2011 and two in 2013 – have opened the window for Nigeria’s private sector to raise required foreign currency funds.
“They are now able to fund long-term real sector projects (agriculture, manufacturing, housing, mineral exploration and processing, infrastructure, etc), for diversified and sustainable economic growth, towards employment generation and poverty reduction” he said.
On the domestic front, he said that between 2007 and 2013, as many as 22 Nigerian companies raised over N223 billion from the domestic market.
He attributed  the success to  the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
However,he said that  the Domestic Bond Market has been meticulously developed with appropriate products and institutional frameworks while soliciting  the cooperation and collaboration of all stakeholders to sustain the momentum and make maximum use of the opportunity saying that  patriotic responsibility demands the commitment of all.

Nigeria’s domestic debt now N8.9trn –DMO