President Bola Tinubu has requested fresh foreign loans of more than $21 billion, or N29.4 trillion, to fund a slate of development projects, pushing Nigeria’s total debt to roughly N160 trillion. With a Senate that is expected to give the request a rubber‑stamp, the debt is projected to rise to N189.4 trillion by the end of December 2026.
The current debt level is a sharp increase from the N100 trillion that the country carried when former President Muhammadu Buhari left office. In 1978, under General Olusegun Obasanjo, the first $2.8 billion loan was taken; by 1999 the debt had grown to $36 billion, equivalent to N50.4 trillion at current exchange rates. Dr Ngozi Okonjo‑Iweala’s reforms in 2004 helped reduce the burden, but by 2015 the debt had climbed to $30 billion (N42 trillion). Buhari’s eight‑year tenure added N58 trillion, and the new loan would add N89.4 trillion in just three and a half years, potentially pushing the debt over N200 trillion by the time the next election takes place
<small>Source: Vanguard News — read the original story there.</small>
