Nigeria’s public debt is set to exceed N180 trillion, following President Bola Tinubu’s request to the National Assembly, seeking approval for additional external and domestic loans totalling N34.15 trillion, according to a report by Vanguard.
Tinubu this week approached the Senate and the House of Representatives, seeking approval for a new external borrowing plan of over $21.5 billion.
It translates to N33.39 trillion at the official exchange rate of N1,590 per dollar.
The President is also seeking approval of a domestic bond issuance of N757.9 billion to settle outstanding pension liabilities.
In the separate letters to the Senate and House of Representatives, read at Tuesday’s plenary by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, Tinubu highlighted the strategic significance of the 2025–2026 borrowing plan, noting that it spanned key sectors of the economy.
Tinubu said: “The 2025–2026 borrowing plan covers all sectors, with specific emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth, security, and employment generation, as well as financial and monetary reforms, among others.”
He explained that the total facility sought under the external borrowing plan includes $21,543,647,912; EUR2,193,856,324.54; and 15 billion Japanese Yen, in addition to a grant of 65 million EUR.
In another letter, President Tinubu sought NASS’ approval for the issuance of Federal Government bonds in the domestic market to settle accrued pension liabilities under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, amounting to N757,983,246,572.
The President complained that the government had been unable to comply with some statutory pension obligations due to revenue challenges, leading to a buildup of arrears and increasing hardship for retirees.
Tinubu noted that the proposal to issue bonds for the settlement of the liabilities had received approval from the Federal Executive Council, FEC, in its meeting of February 4, 2025.
While the Senate President referred the request to the committee on local debts for further legislative action, Speaker of the House of Representatives referred same to the committees on national planning and economic development, as well as pensions for further action.
Nigeria’s total public debt rose by 48.6 per cent to N144.66 trillion in 2024.
It was N97.34 trillion in 2023.
The Federal Government accounted for 95 percent or N137.28 trillion of that amount.
Consequently, the additional borrowing, when combined with the N10.85 trillion borrowed from domestic investors from January to April this year, indicates an increase in total public debt to over N180 trillion.
Even then, the Federal Government’s debt service-to-revenue ratio, a critical measure of ability to repay loans, deteriorated to 131 percent in the first two months of the year, January to February, from 118 per cent in the corresponding period of 2024.
Vanguard’s analysis of data on fiscal activities of the Federal Government in the monthly economic report of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for January and February, showed that the FG spent N1.399 trillion on debt service in two months of 2025, up by 25 per cent YoY from N1.117 trillion in two months of 2024.
It also recorded a 13 per cent YoY increase in revenue to N1.067 trillion in two months of 2025, from N943.4 billion in 2M’24.
Economy stakeholders have expressed concerns over the implication of the additional borrowing for the Federal Government’s debt service-to-revenue ratio as its debt service-to-revenue rose to 131 per cent in the two months of 2025, from 118 per cent in two months of 2024.
