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The Debt Management Office on Thursday said Nigeria’s total public debt stock increased to N39.56tn in 2021 from N32.92tn in 2020.

The Director-General, DMO, Patience Oniha, said this at a media briefing in Abuja.

According to her, the total debt includes new borrowings by the Federal Government and the sub-nationals.

She also said that the amount helped in financing the budget deficit, capital projects and support economic recovery.

Oniha said, “Nigeria’s total public debt as at December 31, 2021, was N39.56tn or $95.78bn. The amount represents the total external and domestic debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria, 36 state governments and the federal capital territory.

“The comparable figure for December 31, 2020, was N32.92tn or $86.39bn. The public debt stock for December 31, 2021, includes new borrowings by the FGN and the sub-nationals. For the FGN, it would be recalled that the 2021 appropriation and supplementary acts, included total new borrowings (from domestic and external sources) of N5.49tn to part-finance the deficit.

“Borrowings for this purpose and disbursements by the multilateral and bilateral creditors account for a significant portion of the increase in the debt stock. Increases were also recorded in the debt stock of the states and the FCT.”

She further said that despite the debt increase, the country is still within the total public debt stock to the Gross Domestic Product limit of 55 per cent set by the World Bank and 70 per cent set by the Economic Community of West African States.

Oniha also said that the Federal Government was “mindful of the relatively high debt-to-revenue ratio” and has established certain measures to increase revenues through the strategic revenue growth initiative and the introduction of Finance Acts since 2019.

Custodian Investment Plc has said it recorded revenue growth of 14 per cent in its audited financial performance for the financial year ended December 31, 2021.

The audited accounts of the group, released recently in Lagos, indicated that gross revenue increased by 14 per cent to N85.7 billion and, after adjusting for non-recurring one-time gain from prior year’s result, profits from continuing ordinary operations recorded 18 per cent growth while net asset per share grew by 16 per cent to 937 kobo.

The company’s shareholders’ fund also grew by 16 per cent from N47.6 billion to N55.1 billion after paying dividends totaling N3.24 billion, amounting to 50 lobo per share during the year.

The audited result of the company and its subsidiaries has confirmed the growth in revenue and shareholders’ funds for the year that ended on 31st December 2021 as earlier reported in the unaudited result released on 31st January 2022.

The report showed that major business segments posted appreciable revenue and profit growths despite the challenging operating environment.

In line with the tradition of the company on the payment of regular dividends to its shareholders, the directors recommended the payment of a final dividend of 40 kobo per share on every 50 kobo share of the company, having paid an interim dividend of 10 kobo per share in September 2021, thus taking the total dividend paid on the result for financial year 2021 to 50 kobo per share.

Despite price gains that outweighed losses, the Nigerian stock market closed on a downward note yesterday, as profit-taking in 17 stocks dragged market capitalisation by N6 billion.

Specifically, at the close of transactions yesterday, the All-Share Index declined by 11.24 per cent, representing a decrease of 0.02 per cent, to close at 47,353.22 points.

Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value lost N6 billion to close at N25.521 trillion.

The market’s negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Seplat Energy, Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Sugar Refinery, United Capital and Unilever Nigeria.

However, market breadth was positive as 18 stocks gained relative to 17 losers. UAC of Nigeria (UACN) recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent to close at N12.10 kobo.

Royal Exchange followed with a gain of 9.80 per cent to close at N1.12, while Wapic Insurance up by 8.16 per cent to close at 53 kobo. Presco rose by 6.40 per cent to close at N133.00, while Multiverse Mining and Exploration gained 4.55 per cent to close at 23 kobo.

On the other hand, Niger Insurance led the losers’ chart by 9.09 per cent to close at 20 kobo. Cornerstone Insurance followed with a decline of 6.45 per cent to close at 58 kobo, while Veritas Kapital Assurance lost 4.55 per cent to close at 21 kobo.

SEPLAT Energy declined 3.13 per cent to close at N930.00, while Lasaco Assurance shed 2.80 per cent to close at N1.04 kobo.

The total volume traded rose by 64.3 per cent to 239.732 million units, valued at N3.892 billion, and exchanged in 3,848 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Veritas Kapital Assurance topped the activity chart with 30.010 million shares valued at N6.302 billion. United Bank for Africa (UBA) followed with 27.730 million shares worth N235.186 million, while FBN Holdings (FBNH) traded 23.021 million shares valued at N272.019 million.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company traded 18.247 million shares valued at N477.757 million, while Fidelity Bank transacted 16.107 million shares worth N47.763 million.