Nigerians have expressed divergent views over the incessant loans taken by the federal government, which has bloated the country’s external debts.

It was reports that the Senate recently approved President Bola Tinubu’s external borrowing plan of over $21 billion for the 2025–2026 fiscal cycle, paving the way for the full implementation of the 2025 Appropriation Act.

The comprehensive borrowing package includes $21.19bn, in direct foreign loans, €4bn, ¥15bn, a $65m grant and domestic borrowing through government bonds, totaling approximately N757bn.

Nigeria’s total public debt climbed to N144.67 trillion ($94.23 billion) as of December 31, 2024, reflecting a significant increase of 48.58% compared to N97.34 trillion ($108.23 billion) recorded at the end of December 2023.

This latest figure was disclosed by the Debt Management Office (DMO) in its report on the country’s public debt profile.

The report also indicated a quarter-on-quarter rise of 1.65% from the N142.32 trillion ($88.89 billion) recorded at the end of September 2024, highlighting the continued increase in the nation’s debt burden within the final quarter of the year.

Reacting, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, lamented what he described as the reckless borrowing by this regime without accountability.

“As our GDP before rebasing was about N269.2 trillion (about $180 billion), the government has borrowed the equivalent of nearly 70% of our previous GDP. 7.Even after the rebasing, which pushed our GDP to about N372.8 trillion (about $243.7 billion), the government would have borrowed about 50.16% of the new GDP (with the approved 8.loans), the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in our history as a nation,” he said.

Similarly, the African Democratic Congress, ADC, condemned the Tinubu administration over what it called fiscal vandalism, saying the president is borrowing far more than his predecessor, Late Muhammadu Buhari, and placing Nigeria on the edge of a financial disaster.

The newly formed opposition coalition said President Tinubu’s government has borrowed more in two years than Buhari did in eight, warning that the country’s total debt could hit ₦200 trillion before the end of 2025.

“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) is deeply concerned by the Tinubu administration’s dangerous obsession with borrowing. What Nigerians are witnessing, following the approval of a fresh $21 billion in foreign loans, is nothing short of a calculated decision to mortgage the country’s future just to cover up the failures of today,” it said.

However, a financial expert and the Chief Executive Officer of SD & D Capital Management, Gbolade Idakolo, said it was not a bad idea for the government to take additional loan if it would be of immense benefit to the infrastructure development and to deepen the country’s economic aspiration.

He, however, decried that sometimes the loans that were taken by previous administrations were not directly applied to what could bring return for the repayment of those loans, adding that when a project is executed at very exorbitant cost, it does not have the means to be able to repay itself based on the way it was applied.

Idakolo expressed the belief that the National Assembly must have done a thorough review of the usage of the additional loan and the viability of the projects to repay the loan.

The financial expert urged the current administration not to tow the path of its predecessors that put infrastructure development at the expense of the government looking for revenue to repay loans.

“I am not against the government taking additional loans if it is going to be of immense benefit to infrastructure development and to be able to deepen our economic aspirations.

“For us to be viable economically, we need to improve on infrastructure development. And we have seen the way loans have gone in the past.

“We are seeing that sometimes the loans that were taken by previous administrations were not directly applied to what can bring return for the repayment of the loan.

“So even when those projects are executed at very exorbitant cost, it does not have the means to be able to repay itself based on the way it was applied.

“So presently, this government that has been taking loans, especially this recent one, I believe that the National Assembly should have done a thorough review of the usage of the loan and the viability of the projects that the facility is going to be for, and the capacity of that facility to be able to repay the loan.

“What can actually help Nigeria is for us to do targeted projects that can improve our infrastructure development to complement our economic aspirations.

“And when that is done, this project should be able to have the capacity to repay the loan.

“So if this administration goes the way of the previous ones that put infrastructure development at the expense of the government also looking for revenue to repay those loans because those projects cannot repay itself, then we will be back to square one,” he said.

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