NIGERIA now owes domestic and foreign lenders more than half its gross domestic product (GDP), according to data released on Monday by the Debt Management Office (DMO), an agency of the Nigerian government.

Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 52.3 percent as of the end of 2024 as against 41 percent by the end of 2013, the DMO said. This means that more than half of Nigerian assets are tied to debt, which is a clear indictment on the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari and that of the current Bola Tinubu.

According to the DMO’s Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDS) 2024–2027, the increase in debt-to-GDP numbers in 2024 was fuelled by new borrowings, issuance of promissory notes and the inclusion of N30 trillion Ways and Means Advances (WMAs) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the FGN’s domestic debt stock.

READ ALSO: Shock as Tinubu borrows N96trn in 2 years, raises Nigeria’s debt to N183trn

Former President Buhari, now late, left a N30 trillion Ways and Means bill before leaving office on May 29, 2023. The Senate has been investigating the situation but is yet to produce any concrete result. Rather, the Ways and Means has been securitised or converted to government bonds and sold to investors.

The DMO further revealed that Nigeria’s debt portfolio composition, which used to be 70:30 in favour of domestic debt, stood at 57:43 in 2024 in favour of external borrowings, fuelled mostly by depreciation of the naira.

Rising debt

Economy Post reported that Nigeria’s total public debt stood at N149.388 trillion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025. The Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration and states borrowed nearly N96 trillion in two years, sending shockwaves among citizens, Economy Post exclusively reported earlier.

Late President Buhari borrowed N75.26 trillion loans in the whole of 8 years. However, while Mr Tinubu’s debt has been monumental, the effect of naira devaluation cannot be ignored. President Tinubu has taken some external loans from the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other multilateral financial institutions, Economy Post earlier reported. But that is at a time the naira exchange rate has weakened against other major currencies.

As at the time President Buhari was leaving power by late May 2023, the exchange rate was less than N800/$. Data from FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the naira exchanged at 775 to a dollar on May 26, 2023. Hence some of former President Buhari’s external loans were taken when a dollar exchanged at less than N800.

However, President Tinubu has taken some of his loans at a point when the naira exchange rate is at over 1,500 to a dollar. Mr Tinubu came to power on May 29, 2023.

READ ALSO: How rubberstamp National Assembly plunged Nigeria into N96trn debt

He took tough decisions, removing petrol subsidies and subsequently floated the naira. Consequently, the price of petrol has skyrocketed from about N200 per litre to N865-N900 per litre, with the exchange rate weakening from less than N800 per dollar to over N1,500 per dollar.

“So, naturally, President Tinubu’s debt should be higher, given the disparities in the exchange rate over the period. If you use the parity rate for both debts, you will find that it won’t be as high as calculated,” explained a United Kingdom-based finance lecturer, Dr Matthew Onyemaechi.

High external debt servicing

With the naira devaluation, external debt is costing Nigeria an arm and a leg, experts say. In the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, Africa’s most populous nation repaid $759.577 million borrowed from international lenders, including the African Development Bank (AfDB), Exim Bank of China, World Bank agencies, among others, with $1.39 billion, according to the DMO documents seen by Economy Post.

In other words, Nigeria’s debt servicing on the loan stood at 83.4 percent, which was nearly double of what was borrowed. It was not stated when the loans were taken, but debt servicing on the $759.577 million was $633.164 million, according to Economy Post’s findings.

As of the Q1 of 2025, Nigeria owed $45.98 billion, including to nations such as Germany, India, France, China and Japan.