Nigeria spent about $2.01bn on external debt servicing between January and April 2025, marking a 50 per cent increase compared to the $1.33bn recorded during the same period in 2024.
According to the latest international payments data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on its website, showed that debt servicing alone accounted for 77.1 per cent of Nigeria’s total international payments within the four months, a sharp rise from the 64.5 per cent share recorded in the same period of 2024.
In total, the Nigeria’s international payments, comprising debt service, remittances, and letters of credit, stood at $2.60bn as of April 2025, up from $2.07bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.
The figures also showed the increasing burden of external debt on Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves, which reportedly fell by about $3bn during the review period.
An analysis of the monthly trend shows that Nigeria paid $540.67m in January 2025, slightly below the $560.52m recorded in January 2024. In February, the figure stood at $276.73m, almost unchanged from the $283.22m paid in February 2024.
However, in March, debt service spiked to $632.36m, more than double the $276.17m paid in the same month last year. The trend continued in April with another $557.79m disbursed, representing a 159 per cent increase from the $215.20m paid in April 2024.
The report by Punch newspaper observed that within just two months (March and April), Nigeria spent nearly $1.2bn on debt repayments alone, pointing to a heavy schedule of maturing loans during the period.
It noted that the sharp rise in obligations suggests the settlement of large commercial or bilateral debts within those two months.
It added that the two-month period coincided with the clearance of an external debt obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The report recalled that the IMF had earlier confirmed that Nigeria has fully repaid the $3.4bn financial support it received under the Rapid Financing Instrument to cushion the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
GIK/APA