Speaker Abbas raises alarm over Nigeria’s ₦149trn Debt

…calls for stronger parliamentary oversight

By Gift ChapiOdekina, Abuja

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Abbas Tajudeen, has warned that Nigeria’s rising indebtedness illustration has reached a captious and unsustainable level, stressing the urgent request for stronger legislative oversight to safeguard the country’s economical future.

Speaking 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 Complex, Abuja, Abbas disclosed that Nigeria’s full nationalist indebtedness deed ₦149.39 trillion (about US$97 billion) successful the archetypal 4th of 2025.

He said: “Even much concerning is the debt-to-GDP ratio, which present stands astatine astir 52 per cent, good supra the statutory ceiling of 40 per cent acceptable by our ain laws. This breach of our indebtedness bounds signals the strain connected fiscal sustainability.”

The Speaker warned that unless urgent reforms are undertaken, Nigeria risks mortgaging the payment of aboriginal generations. “Oversight of nationalist indebtedness is simply a antiauthoritarian work and a motivation work of the legislature,” helium stated. “Our parliaments indispensable guarantee that each borrowing determination reflects prudence, transparency, and the corporate involvement of our citizens.”

Abbas besides painted a grim representation of Africa’s indebtedness situation, noting that the continent’s full nationalist indebtedness reached US$1.8 trillion by 2022, with outer indebtedness projected to surpass US$1 trillion by 2023. He cited countries already successful unsafe debt-to-GDP territory, including Sudan astatine 344 percent, Angola astatine 136.8 percent, Ghana astatine 84 percent, Kenya astatine astir 70 percent, and South Africa supra 77 percent.

“Nigeria, caller disposable information bespeak that our indebtedness trajectory has reached a captious point, showing that arsenic astatine the archetypal 4th of 2025, the full nationalist indebtedness stood astatine ₦149.39 trillion, equivalent to astir US$97 billion, with home borrowing making up 53 percent and outer borrowing accounting for 47 percent. This represents a crisp emergence from ₦121.7 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. This breach of our indebtedness bounds signals the strain connected fiscal sustainability.

“In galore cases, governments are spending much connected servicing indebtedness than connected healthcare and different indispensable services,” Abbas lamented. “This is not conscionable a budgetary concern, but a structural situation that demands urgent parliamentary attraction and coordinated reform.”

” It highlights the urgent request for stronger oversight, transparent borrowing practices, and a corporate resoluteness to guarantee that tangible economical and societal returns lucifer each naira borrowed. Across Africa, indebtedness levels person reached alarming proportions. By 2022, the continent’s full nationalist indebtedness had reached US$1.8 trillion, with outer indebtedness unsocial expected to surpass US$1 trillion by 2023. Several countries are present successful unsafe debt-to-GDP territory: Sudan astatine 344 percent, Angola astatine 136.8 percent, Ghana astatine 84 percent, Kenya astatine astir 70 percent, and South Africa supra 77 percent.

“In galore cases, governments are spending much connected servicing indebtedness than connected healthcare and different indispensable services, shrinking the fiscal abstraction disposable for development. This continental representation makes wide that Africa faces not conscionable a budgetary concern, but a structural situation that demands urgent parliamentary attraction and coordinated reform.

“The countries of the West African sub-region transportation the aforesaid burden. Distinguished Participants, erstwhile we analyse the sources of Africa’s outer financing, it becomes wide that the value of indebtedness connected our continent is shaped by who we get from and connected what terms. Today, Western backstage lenders clasp astir 35 percent of Africa’s authorities indebtedness done banks, plus managers, and lipid traders. Multilateral institutions, specified arsenic the World Bank and the IMF, relationship for different 39 percent, portion bilateral loans from different governments comprise 13 percent.

” Chinese creditors, contempt overmuch of the nationalist debate, clasp lone 12 percent. To spot this successful sharper focus, successful 2019, bondholders unsocial represented 27 percent of Africa’s outer debt, making them the sin...