By Ngozi Onyeakusi— Nigeria in the first quarter of 2021 recorded a fiscal deficit of N2.293 trillion or 6.43 percent of the year’s quarterly GDP.
According to the Budget Office of the Federation (BoF) in its Budget Implementation Report for the first quarter of 2021 the “revenue and expenditure outturn of the Federal Government resulted in a fiscal deficit of N2.293 trillion during the quarter”. The first quarter deficit the report said “was N1.070 trillion (87.51 percent) higher than the projected quarterly fiscal deficit of N1.222 trillion”. “The 2021 fiscal deficit was also higher than the N1.377 trillion deficit recorded in first quarter of 2020” the Budget Office said. According to the BoF, “the deficit was partly-financed through domestic borrowing of N550.0 billion”. In the first quarter of 2021 also, the federal government said it spent N813 billion to service debt. BoF in its report stated that “total debt service in the first quarter of 2021 stood at N813.10 billion, indicating an increase of N32.01 billion (4.10 percent) above the N781.10 billion projected for the quarter”. The sum of N581.27 billion was used for domestic debt servicing while N231.83 billion was used for external debt service in the first quarter of 2021. “The amount used for domestic debt servicing was N35.40 billion (6.48 percent) above the projection for