The money borrowed by Federal Government in the first quarter stood at more than N3.17 trillion, records have revealed.
Data obtained by The Nation Economic Intelligence showed that the government had raised N3.17 trillion in the past three months through the issuance of regular bonds, retails savings bonds and treasury bills at the domestic capital market.
The borrowings doubled government’s borrowings in the fourth quarter of last year. It remained the largest debt issuances over the past 10 quarters tracked by The Nation team.
The data indicated a consecutive monthly increase in borrowings in first quarter of this year with the government raising its initial offer sizes in most instances to mop up oversubscriptions to its offers.
A month-on-month breakdown showed that the government raised a total of N940.62 billion in January. The government, which increased borrowings to N1.035 trillion in February, closed the quarter with N1.196 trillion.
With sovereign downgrades by global rating agencies and attendant higher risk profile as well as cost of international debt issuances, the government had been constrained to the domestic capital market to fund its budget deficit.
The government plans to raise N8.8 trillion through regular debt issuances to fund the N10.78 trillion 2023 budget deficit.
