Nigeria’s total public debt has risen sharply to N82 trillion from N73 trillion following the unification of the naira.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in a statement, “Operational Changes to the Foreign Exchange Market”, signaled a unification of the multiple exchange rates.
This is in line with the instruction of the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu who first announced this as a policy change in his inauguration broadcast.
However, the implementation of the scheme, which saw the exchange rate first depreciate to N662/$1 attracts several consequences for the economy one of which includes the automatic increase of the public debt.
Impact on Public Debt
Before now, the nation’s public debt was quoted at N448.50/$1 by the Debt Management Office as the official exchange rate but this has now been depreciated to N662/$1.
This means the total public debt increases from an estimated N79 trillion to N82 trillion.
Nairametrics