Nigeria secured total loans of $2.7 billion from the World Bank under the administration of President Bola Tinubu amid concerns over the country’s rising external debt servicing costs.
The four approved loans are for power ($750 million), women empowerment ($500 million), girl’s education ($700 million), and renewable energy ($750 million), according to findings by TheWitness.
The World Bank recently disclosed that Nigeria was the top recipient of its fresh loans in 2022, with about $2.9 billion released to the country. According to its International Debt Report for 2023, Nigeria was followed by Tanzania, which got $2.7 billion in the same year.
The report read:
So far, the World Bank has approved to Nigeria in 2023 the total loan received by Tanzania in 2022.
Data from the external debt stock report of the Debt Management Office (DMO) shows that Nigeria owes the World Bank a total of $14.58 billion as of September 30, 2023.
There have been concerns over the country’s rising debt costs amid rising debt over the years.
Nigeria spent about 277.64% more servicing its external debt in the third quarter of 2023.
The DMO in a statement said that external debt decreased due to the redemption of a $500 million Eurobond and payment of $413.859 million as the first principal repayment of the $3.4 billion loan obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2020 during Covid-19.
However, it appears that there is no record of the debt service to the IMF in the external debt servicing report of Q3 2023.
In a recent statement by the World Bank, it stressed the impact of high debt service costs on developing countries, with its Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Indermit Gill, saying:
