President Bola Tinubu has requested the National Assembly\u2019s approval to secure external loans of 21.5 million Dollars and 15 billion Yen, along with a grant of 65 million Euros, as part of the federal government\u2019s proposed 2025\u20132026 external borrowing plan.
The president\u2019s request was contained in a letter read by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, during the plenary on Tuesday.
The letter also included a summary of the funding breakdown, but the content was not made public.
\u201cThe distinguished Senate is invited to note that the 2025-2026 borrowing plan cuts across all sectors with specific emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth, security and employment generation, as well as financial management reforms, amongst others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe total facility of the projects and programs under the borrowing plan is estimated at US21.5 million Dollars and 15 billion Yen and grants of 65 million Euros respectively. The summary of the breakdown is attached herewith,\u201d the letter reads.
Mr Tinubu explained that the funds will be used to generate employment, promote skill acquisition, enhance entrepreneurship, reduce poverty, and improve food security across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe majority of these projects and programmes will be implemented across all the 36 states of the federation and the federal government territory,\u201d he added.
Nigeria\u2019s public debt has increased in recent years, raising concerns about the country\u2019s fiscal sustainability.
According to Nigeria\u2019s Debt Management Office (DMO), as of 31 December 2024, Nigeria\u2019s total public debt stood at N144.7 trillion (approximately US 94.2 billion Dollars). About 51.4 per cent of the total (N74.4 trillion) is domestic debt while 48.6 per cent (N70.3 trillion) is external debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rising debt has resulted in increased debt servicing costs. In 2023, Nigeria spent N7.8 trillion on debt servicing, a 121 per cent increase compared to N3.52 trillion in the previous year. The amount spent on debt servicing rose to N13.12 trillion in 2024, a 68 per cent increase from the 2023 figure. These high debt servicing costs mean less funds for important sectors such as infrastructure and social services, potentially hindering economic growth and development.
Despite these fiscal pressures, the Tinubu administration maintains that borrowing remains an essential instrument for development financing, especially as domestic funding sources continue to dwindle. However, borrowing is not limited to this administration; successive governments in Nigeria borrowed to finance projects, even while struggling to settle the existing debts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Tinubu, in a media chat last December, defended his borrowing strategy, saying that he took the decision not to inflict pain on Nigerians, but because of his commitment to infrastructural development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president said borrowing is not a crime and Nigeria needs such funds for infrastructural development.
Declining domestic funding
In the letter, Mr Tinubu reiterated that borrowing was necessary due to declining domestic revenues and the urgency of reviving Nigeria\u2019s ageing and overstretched infrastructure.
He added that the funds would be channeled primarily into critical infrastructure projects in power, transportation, healthcare, and other key areas.
\u201cIn light of the significant infrastructure deficit in the country and the vast financial resources needed to address this gap amid declining domestic funding, it has become essential to pursue prudent external borrowing to close the financial shuffle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These funds will primarily be directed towards critical infrastructure projects, including sectors of power, railways, healthcare, amongst others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Bola Tinubu has requested the National Assembly\u2019s approval to secure external loans of 21.5 million Dollars and 15 billion Yen, along with a grant of 65 million Euros, as part of the federal government\u2019s proposed 2025\u20132026 external borrowing plan. The president\u2019s request was contained in a letter read by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Alake-celebrate-Tinubu-e1743256137835.jpg-1.jpeg?fit=650%2C433&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13895"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18099,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13895\/revisions\/18099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}