Naira crash pushes Nigeria’s debt to N149.38 trillion

• Nigeria’s full nationalist indebtedness roseate to ₦149.38 trillion successful the archetypal 4th of 2025, expanding by N4.72 trillion from the erstwhile 4th owed to borrowing to screen fund deficits and the naira’s depreciation
• External indebtedness stood astatine N70.63 trillion ($45.9 billion), with the weakening currency importantly inflating naira-denominated indebtedness contempt humble dollar increases
• The country’s per capita indebtedness has crossed N600,000, raising concerns astir the strain connected nationalist finances and the government’s quality to money developmental projects

Legit.ng writer Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) reports that successful the archetypal 4th (Q1) of 2025, Nigeria's full nationalist indebtedness accrued to N149.38 trillion.

Photo Credit:. FG
Source: UGC

The indebtedness bureau revealed that the full nationalist indebtedness accrued by N4.72 trillion, oregon 3.3 percent, from the N144.67 trillion recorded successful the 4th fourth (Q4) of 2024.

According to the DMO, the wide outer indebtedness stands astatine N70.63 trillion ($45.9 billion), portion the full interior indebtedness is N78.75 trillion ($51.2 billion).

Nigeria's governmental indebtedness has been fueled by borrowing from some home and overseas sources to screen fund deficits, which has been made worse by the effect of the naira's decline connected the worth of outer debt.

Impact of N70.63 trillion indebtedness connected currency

According to caller fiscal data, Nigeria's outer indebtedness accrued by N14.61 trillion, oregon 26.1% annually, from N56.02 trillion successful 2024 to N70.63 trillion successful Q1 2025.

The summation was little important connected a quarter-over-quarter basis, going up conscionable N344 cardinal from N70.29 trillion astatine the extremity of the erstwhile year.

The indebtedness data' notable discrepancy betwixt dollar and naira maturation underscores the increasing effects of overseas currency volatility. The depreciation and changeless servicing of the section currency caused the naira equivalent to soar, contempt the dollar-denominated indebtedness lone expanding by $3.86 billion.

According to reports, the Central Bank of Nigeria utilised a ₦1,330.26/$1 speech complaint successful the archetypal 4th of 2024. The crisp summation successful naira presumption indicates a important driblet successful currency value, adjacent though the authoritative complaint for Q1 2025 was not made public.

Photo Credit: FG
Source: UGC

Foreign borrowings from bilateral partners, multilateral lenders, and commercialized creditors, specified arsenic holders of World Bank and Eurobonds, person contributed to the nation's increasing indebtedness by raising the outgo of overseas loans successful section currency.

Since a sizable magnitude of gross is utilized to wage backmost the main and involvement connected overseas loans, this has besides made it much hard for the federation to concern maturation initiatives.

Nigeria’s per capita indebtedness crosses N600k

Legit.ng reported information from the Debt Management Office (DMO) shows that Nigeria’s indebtedness profile stood astatine N144.665 trillion, astir $94.2 billion, arsenic of December 31, 2024.

Nigeria’s indebtedness is simply a analyzable and evolving scenery that has accrued recently, chiefly driven by fund deficits, speech complaint depreciation, and the request for infrastructure financing.

The DMO information shows that arsenic of Q1 2024, Nigeria's nationalist indebtedness stood astatine N121.67 trillion (US$91.46 billion). By December 2024, it further accrued to N144.67 trillion.

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Source: Legit.ng