Newsmen ‘ review of data published by the Debt Management Office has shown that within 19 months of the Bola Tinubu-led administration, the Nigerian government’s debt portfolio grew by N55.2trillion.
This development comes despite repeated promises by the Tinubu administration that Nigeria would become less reliant on loans.
For instance, in August 2023, while inaugurating the Presidential Committee on Tax Reforms, Tinubu vowed to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on borrowing for public expenditure.
The State House website published the following statement in August 2023:
“President Bola Tinubu in Abuja expressed his resolute commitment to break the vicious cycle of overreliance on borrowing for public spending, and the resulting burden of debt servicing it places on the management of Nigeria’s limited government revenues.”
Despite the promises made as part of the “Renewed Hope agenda”, the Tinubu administration appears relentless in expanding the country’s debt portfolio.
A review shows that as of June 30, 2023 — the end of Tinubu’s first month in office — the external debt of the Federal Government of Nigeria stood at N29.8 trillion (excluding debts owed by states and the Federal Capital Territory).
However, by December 31, 2024, the external debt owed by the Federal Government alone had grown to N62.917 trillion. This indicates an increase of N33.1 trillion in external debt between June 2023 and December 2024.
Domestically, the federal government’s debt stood at N48.3 trillion as of June 2023. By December 2024, this had increased to N70.4 trillion — a growth of N22.1 trillion.
In total, the debt owed by the Federal Government (excluding state and FCT debts) increased by N55.2 trillion by the end of December 2024.
An earlier review of the fourth quarter 2024 economic report released by the Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that the Tinubu-led government spent N2.199 trillion on debt servicing in Q4 2024.
This figure exceeded both the N2.067 trillion budgeted for debt servicing in Q4 2024 and the N2.055 trillion spent in Q3 2024.
Moreover, the Q4 2024 debt servicing expenditure was higher than what was spent in the same period in 2023, when N1.876 trillion was used for that purpose.
The report also noted that Nigeria’s total public debt stock stood at 51.29% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), about 18% below the 70% threshold for market-access countries.
“At end-September 2024, public debt stock remained within the 70.00 per cent threshold for Market-Access Countries.”
“Total public debt outstanding stood at ₦142.32 trillion (51.29% of GDP), at end-September 2024, and was 5.97 per cent higher than the level at end-June 2024. The rise was due largely to revaluation effects (arising from exchange rate depreciation) and new borrowings to finance the deficit outlined in the 2024 Appropriation Act.”
