According to a recent report from the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF), the Federal Government of Nigeria’s interest payment on Ways and Means debt to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the first half of 2023 surpassed the revenue generated from crude oil.
The report, titled “Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper,” which was released on Thursday, revealed that the CBN Ways and Means payment of N1.68 trillion exceeded the FG’s crude oil revenues of N813.58 billion, which is an excess of 107 percent over oil revenue.
The BOF explained that the FG’s debt service situation worsened due to the surge in Ways and Means payments, which increased by N966 billion from the first half of the year’s budgeted amount of N700 billion to N1.68 trillion, an amount that also exceeded the 2023 budgeted amount of N1.2 trillion by over N400 billion.
Foreign loan servicing decreased by 49 percent, or N528 billion, reaching N530 billion from the budgeted first-half amount of N1.06 trillion, while domestic debt service charges dropped by 11.1 percent, or N214 billion, settling at N1.7 trillion from the budgeted N1.9 trillion for the first half of 2023.
