Foreign Debt: New Data Reveals Nigeria Owes China, India, 3 Others $4.85 Billion
- Recent data has shown that Nigeria owes about $4.85 billion to five countries, accrued in the last seven years
- Nigeria’s external debt has ballooned by over 200% in the seven years that Buhari has been president
- Most of Nigeria's external debt is owed to countries such as India, Japan, China, France and Germany
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Recent documents from the Debt Management Office (DMO) have revealed that Nigeria's government borrowed about $3.27 billion from five countries between June 30, 2015, and September 30, 2022.
The DMO data on loans disclosed that within the period, the country’s borrowings from five countries spiked by 206.96% from $1.58 billion in 2015 to $4.85 billion by September 2022.
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Nigeria's top five creditors
The top five countries are China, France, Japan, India and Germany.
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In mid-2015, Nigeria borrowed $1.39 billion from China Exim Bank, $140.25 million from France’s Agence Francaise Development, $43.10 million from Japan’s Japan International Corporation Agency and $11.73 million from Germany’s Kreditstanstalt Fur Wiederaufbua.
Nigeria’s bilateral debt stock increased with the country owing China $4.09 billion. The new data also divulged that Nigeria owes France $526.48 million, Japan $57.11 million, Germany $153.06 million and India $27.17 million.
According to the data, Nigeria got its first debt from India during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, with $14.79 million recorded as debt from the Asian country.
China has remained Nigeria’s biggest bilateral creditor over the decades. Nigeria sought loan facilities from the Chinese government to execute several projects such as standard gauge rail lines.
Projects executed with Chinese loans
In one of the documents, DMO said 15 projects were financed with Chinese loans, four of which are spent on rails.
A Punch report stated that the Nigerian government spent $548.67 million on servicing projects related to railways.
The current bilateral debt of Nigeria is put at 12.24% with a total external debt of $39.66 billion, excluding external debts owed by states.
Nigeria’s debt has spiked from $10.32 billion on June 30, 2015, to $40.06 billion as of June 30, 2022, covering external borrowings by the Nigerian government and states.
The data showed that there has been an increase of 288.18% in seven years.
Nigeria begs National Assembly to restructure N22.7 trillion debt, Lawan agrees
Legit.ng reported that as the Nigerian government struggles to service its bloating debt burden, the Senate president, Ahmed Lawan has stated that the upper legislative chamber is willing to approve the N22.7 trillion request made by President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2022.
Lawan accused Zainab Ahmed, the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, of stalling the process by delaying the provision of the requisite documents with details of the Ways and Means Advances.
Punch reports that the lawmakers, led by Rivers West Senator Betty Apiafi, opposed the securitisation of the CBN advances collected by the Nigerian government in the last ten years as well as the recently requested N1 trillion domestic loan.
Source: Legit.ng
