The World Bank has said the external debt stock of Nigeria has risen by 6.6 percent to $145.02 billion in 2025, from $135.99 billion in 2024, raising questions on the country’s priorities.
The World Bank captured Nigeria’s external borrowing profile in its International Debt Report 2026, which captures external borrowing and debt-service trends across low- and middle-income countries.
Published on Friday, the World Bank report put Nigeria’s public and publicly guaranteed debt at $62.4 billion, while private non-guaranteed debt accounted for $54.48 billion.
The multilateral said short-term debt stood at $28.14 billion
The World Bank also said Nigeria acquired $5 billion through a total return swap (TRS) arrangement in 2026, pledging about $6.7 billion in domestic government securities as collateral.
The international financial lender said the transaction had a three-year maturity and a collateralisation ratio of approximately 133 percent, meaning the value of securities pledged was about 33 percent higher than the financing obtained.
The World Bank stated that the TRS arrangements have been identified in Angola, Argentina, Colombia, Nigeria and Senegal since 2024, with financing amounts ranging from about $1 billion to $9.3 billion.
“Maturities have generally ranged from one to three years, and disclosed collateralization ratios have typically been between 133 and 198 percent,” the report said.
The World Bank stated that collateral for the transactions included domestic government securities, external sovereign bonds, US treasury securities or a mixture of the instruments.
The report further stated that Nigeria raised $2.3 billion through a dual-tranche international bond issue, making it the third-largest issuer in the region.
The bond sale, according to the World Bank comprised a 10-year tranche with an interest rate of 8.625 percent and a 20-year tranche at 9.125 percent.
On Nigeria’s debt burden, the World Bank put the nation’s external debt-to-exports ratio at 212 percent in 2025, while external debt-to-gross national income stood at 51 percent.
Debt service accounted for 19 percent of exports, while debt service-to-gross national income was 5 percent.
The report showed that Nigeria’s average interest rate on new borrowing from official creditors was 1.9 percent in 2025, compared with 9.6 percent for private creditors.
The World Bank said new borrowing from official creditors had an average maturity of 25 years and a five-year grace period, while private creditor financing had a 12-year maturity and an eight-year grace period.
The report showed that external debt across low- and middle-income countries rose 5.5 percent to a record $9.4 trillion in 2025.
“Access to international finance has improved, but the price of that finance has not,” the report said.
The World Bank Group’s chief statistician and director of development data,
Haishan Fu, welcomed the return of private lending, but said it came with significant costs.
Fu stated that while the return of private lending to low- and middle-income countries is welcome, “these countries are borrowing more, paying more, and in many cases leaving less for long-term development”.
