‘FG spent N1.25trn on debt service in 5 months’

The Federal Government spent N1.25 trillion between January and May 2020 on debt servicing, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has said.

Nigeria’s current debt stock is around $86bn or over N33trn and counting.

She gave the figures on Friday during a virtual consultative session with CSO’s, the organised private sector and the general public on the draft 2021 – 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Sustainability Paper (MTEF/FSP).

Giving an update on the initial 2020 budget performance between January and May she said on the expenditure side, N9.97 trillion was appropriated (excluding Governmentowned enterprises and Project tied loans), while N3.52 trillion (representing 84.8% of the pro rata N4.16 trillion) was spent.

Of the expenditure, she said N1.25 trillion was for debt service, and N1.32 trillion for personnel cost, including pensions.

Thus as at the end of May 2020, only N253.33 billion had been released for capital expenditure, a situation she attributes largely to the budget revision exercise.

On revenues performance she said as at end of May 2020, FGN’s retained revenue was N1.48 trillion, 56% of target while non-oil tax revenues totalled N439.32bn (65% of revised target).

According to Mrs Ahmed, other revenues amounted to N339.51 billion, of which independent revenues was N80.22 billion (21% of target). Recoveries and Stamp duty collected during the period are yet to be booked in the fiscal accounts.