The Presidency has allayed fears that Nigeria’s international debts were on the rise, saying that the opposite is currently the case.
The Special Assistant to the Presidency on Economy, Tope Fasua, allayed the fears on Tuesday while responding to questions in an interview on ‘The Morning Brief’, a programme on Channels Television.
Fasua explained that Nigeria’s debts have eased by 39 per cent since the coming on board of this current administration in 2023.
“At 39 per cent of GDP, Nigeria is actually under-borrowing. And of course, regarding debt servicing, the last data I got last month was 64 per cent lower. In 2022, there was a point when our debt was as high as 120 per cent.
“We used all our revenues to service debts, and we had to borrow 20 per cent extra just to service that same debt.
“So currently, our debt management is not so bad. I think we are doing a great job in the area of debt management, if you ask me,” he said.
The presidential aide added that the government, however, welcomed constructive criticisms.
Nigeria’s external debt stood at approximately $45.97 billion (N70.63 trillion) as of Q1 2025.
This figure represents a 26.07% year-on-year increase from the Q1 2024 period, attributed to new government loans and the depreciation of the naira.
The external debt data was provided by the Debt Management Office, DMO, and reported by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
According to Fusua, the country had a huge infrastructural gap that needed to be filled through borrowings to meet project demands across the country.
