Nigeria spent $817.4 million (approximately N1.26 trillion) on debt servicing in the first two months of 2025, marking a 3.12% decline compared to the $843.73 million spent in the same period in 2024, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) International Payments Report.
A breakdown of the report shows that the government spent $540.7 million on debt servicing in January 2025, followed by $276.7 million in February. In total, Nigeria spent $3.81 billion (about N5.9 trillion) on debt servicing throughout 2024.
This comes as the Federal Government unveiled its most ambitious national budget in 65 years, proposing a record-breaking N54.99 trillion in expenditures for 2025. This represents a 56.89% increase from the N35.05 trillion budgeted in 2024 (including a supplementary N6.2 trillion). President Bola Tinubu has described the financial plan as a “Budget of Restoration,” aimed at stabilizing the economy and fostering growth.
A significant portion of the budget—N16.3 trillion—is allocated for debt servicing, reflecting a 95% increase from the N8.25 trillion earmarked in 2024.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s foreign trade via Letters of Credit (LC) payments declined slightly by 0.55% year-on-year (YoY) to $160 million in the first two months of 2025, down from $160.9 million in the same period of 2024. LC payments, a key measure of a country’s creditworthiness and import trade activity, saw a broader decline last year, dropping by 39% to $801.06 million in 2024 from $1.32 billion in 2023.
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