The Federal Government spent a total of $1.08bn (N400.90bn) on external debt servicing between January and September 2019.
Data obtained from the Debt Management Office revealed that in the nine-month period, $279.63m (N103.46bn) was paid to multilateral sources such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association.
A total of $152.2m (N56.31bn) was paid to bilateral sources such as the Export-Import Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of India.
Commercial sources such as Eurobond Investors received $630.81m (N233.40bn) as interest while $20.86m (N7.72bn) was paid for other debt items such as agency fees.
Analysis of the data revealed that the highest amount was used to service debt from commercial sources, which represented 58.22 per cent of the total amount.
Servicing of debt from multilateral sources constituted 25.81 per cent of the total amount while that from bilateral and other sources constituted 14.05 per cent and 1.93 per cent respectively.
A comparison of all the quarters showed that the highest amount of $473.94m (N175.36bn) was spent in the third quarter of the year.
The DMO gave the breakdown of the amount to include $134.38m (N49.72bn) for multilateral sources, $76.52m (N28.31bn) for bilateral sources and $263.04m (N97.32bn) for commercial sources.
In the second quarter of the year, the Federal Government expended $252.30m on foreign debt servicing.
Of the $252.30m paid, $65.85m (N24.36bn) was paid to multilateral sources; $8.58m (N3.17bn) was paid to bilateral sources, $157.01m (N59.09bn) was paid to commercial sources and $20.86m (N7.72bn) was paid to other sources.
In the first quarter of the year, the Federal Government spent $357.26m (N132.19bn) on debt servicing.
The DMO said $79.40m (N29.38bn) was paid to multilateral sources, $67.10m (N28.83bn) was paid to bilateral sources and $210.76m (N77.98bn) paid to commercial sources.
The DMO had said the Federal Government and the 36 states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, owed a total N26.22tn as of September 30, 2019.
The Director-General, DMO, Patience Oniha, said the devaluation of the exchange rate brought about by economic downturn, considerably hiked the country’s debt profile.
She stated that new borrowings were reducing and that the Federal Government was trying to reduce the cost of borrowing.
“This is to enhance the productivity of both staff and students of the faculty,” Okoro said
Earlier in her welcome address, the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Prof. Florence Orabueze, charged the alumni not to turn blind eyes to the infrastructural decay in the faculty, calling on them to make donations for research and training of faculty members and to give the students and staff the opportunity to attend international conferences and seminars.
She also called on them to provide platforms for networking of staff and students of the institution and offer them linkages that would improve their knowledge, experiences, skills, and potentials.
While delivering the faculty lecture entitled ‘Why Not Scrap the Arts’ Prof. Sam Ukala, said that arts are indispensable in any society, adding that they develop cultivated human beings and equip them to understand and record their world.
He also said that arts help to substantially predict man’s future and what he might need to cope with his challenges, stating that it also encourages self-reflection which helps to develop personal consciousness and an active sense of civic duty.
Ukala said arts help to create and sustain awareness of identity through humanistic socialisation and knowledge of one’s history.
“Arts give pleasure or entertain, and at the same time, socialise man and provide for him a code for living,” Ukala said.