JUST-IN: Speaker Abbas Raises Alarm As Nigeria’s Debt Hits N149trn

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, has raised alarm implicit Nigeria’s escalating indebtedness profile, informing that it has breached the nation’s statutory ceiling, posing a superior menace to fiscal sustainability.

Speaking connected Monday astatine the opening of the 11th Annual Conference and General Assembly of the West Africa Association of Public Accounts Committees (WAAPAC) astatine the National Assembly, Abuja, Abbas said Nigeria’s indebtedness had reached “a captious point” and called for urgent reforms successful borrowing practices and oversight.
“As astatine the archetypal 4th of 2025, Nigeria’s full nationalist indebtedness stood astatine N149.39 trillion, equivalent to astir US$97 billion. This represents a crisp emergence from N121.7 trillion the erstwhile year, underscoring however rapidly the load has grown.
“Even much concerning is the debt-to-GDP ratio, which present stands astatine astir 52 percent, good supra the statutory ceiling of 40 percent acceptable by our ain laws.”
He described the indebtedness bounds breach arsenic “a awesome of strain connected fiscal sustainability,” stressing the request for “stronger oversight, transparent borrowing practices, and a corporate resoluteness to guarantee that tangible economical and societal returns lucifer each naira borrowed.”
Abbas warned that respective countries crossed Africa were successful unsafe debt-to-GDP territories, with governments spending much connected servicing loans than connected healthcare and indispensable services.
“This is not conscionable a budgetary concern, but a structural situation that demands urgent parliamentary attraction and coordinated reform,” helium said.
In bid to code the increasing fiscal risks, Abbas announced that Nigeria was acceptable to champion the constitution of a West African Parliamentary Debt Oversight Framework nether WAAPAC.
He explained that the model volition harmonise indebtedness reporting crossed the sub-region, acceptable transparency standards, and empower parliaments with timely information to scrutinise borrowing practices.
The Speaker besides disclosed plans for a determination capacity-building programme for Public Accounts and Finance Committees, which volition equip members with modern tools for indebtedness sustainability investigation and fiscal hazard assessment.

Abbas further warned against reckless debt, saying borrowing should beryllium utilized to span captious infrastructural gaps.
“Borrowing should enactment infrastructure, health, education, and industries that make jobs and trim poverty. Reckless indebtedness that fuels depletion oregon corruption indispensable beryllium exposed and rejected. Oversight is not conscionable astir figures, but astir the lives and futures down those figures,” helium said.
The Speaker reiterated the 10th House’s committedness to accountability, saying that nether its Open Parliament policy, large borrowing proposals would beryllium subjected to nationalist hearings, portion simplified indebtedness reports would beryllium made disposable to citizens.

The conference, which brought unneurotic parliamentarians from crossed West Africa, improvement partners, and fiscal experts, has arsenic its theme: “Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight of Public Debt: The Role of Finance and Public Accounts Committees.”

Abbas urged participants to attack deliberations with ded...