The Federal Government has spent a total of $15.55 billion on debt servicing between 2019 and 2024, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to the CBN International Payments Data, in 2019, debt service payments amounted to $588.33 million from January to May, while in 2020, the amount surged to $5.40 billion. It added that the debt servicing costs continued to rise with $2.02 billion paid in 2021, $2.34 billion in 2022, and $3.43 billion in 2023.
For the first five months of 2024, Nigeria has already paid $2.18 billion in debt service, marking a 270.9% increase compared to the same period in 2019.
This surge occurs despite the government’s focus on domestic borrowing, with Fitch Ratings predicting a rise in external debt servicing to $5.2 billion next year.