Nigeria’s joint public debt, comprising the domestic and external debts of the federal government, the 36 States governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has hit $103 billion or N46.25 trillion, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.

While the federal government owes the lion share of the debt, Lagos, Delta and Ogun also owe substantial percentages.

The bureau revealed this in its 4Q 2022 Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt Report released on Thursday.

It said that while the country’s public external stock debit stood at N18.70 trillion ($41.69 billion), the domestic stock debt was N27.53 trillion ($61.41 billion).

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“Nigeria’s public debt stock, which includes external and domestic debt, stood at N46.25 trillion (US$103.11 billion) in Q4 2022 from N44.06 trillion (US$ 101.91 billion) in Q3 2022,” the NBS reported.

“This shows that public debt (in national currency) grew by 4.96% in Q4 2022. External debt stood at N18.70 trillion (US$41.69 billion) in Q4 2022, while domestic debt was N27.55 trillion (US$61.41billion).

“However, the share of external debt to total public debt stood at 40.44% in Q4 2022, while domestic debt was recorded at 59.56%.”

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The NBS revealed that the federal government’s share of the domestic debt was 88.62 percent.

“In addition, the Federal Government share of domestic debt was 80.62% in Q4 2022,” it said.

Lagos State’s domestic debt is N807.21 billion, the highest for all states, in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the bureau.

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“On state profile analysis, Lagos recorded the highest domestic debt in Q4 2022 with N807.21 billion, followed by Delta with N304.25 billion and Ogun with N270.45 billion. On the other hand, the lowest debt was recorded in Jigawa with N43.95 billion, followed by Kebbi and Katsina with N61.31 billion and N62.37 billion respectively,” the NBS stated.