Out of the $1.8 billion Nigeria spent on debt servicing in the fourth quarter of 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) received a lion’s share of $407.97 million.
This, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO), is the highest payment to a multilateral creditor.
The International Development Association (IDA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) received $116.48 million, $43.89 million, $14.48 million and $5.83 million, respectively.
The country also paid out a total of $430.53 million to other commercial creditors during the period, with syndicated loans accounting for $280.16 million, Eurobond debt got $148.57 million; UniCredit S.P.A received $1.54 million, while Standard Chartered Bank got $144,000 just as Deutsche Bank AG got $108,000.
To bilateral creditors, Nigeria spent $46.85 million servicing their debt holdings during the period.
A breakdown of the figures shows that France’s Agence Française de Développement (AFD) received $33.13 million; Germany’s KfW got $11.84 million, while China Development Bank got $1.88 million.
Just last week, the DMO published that Nigeria’s external debt increased by 83.89 per cent from N38.22 trillion ($42.50 billion) in December 2023 to N70.29 trillion ($45.78 billion) in December 2024.
Under the present administration, the government has been able to reduce Nigeria’s revenue-to-debt service ratio from 97 per cent to 65 per cent.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on external sector payments also show that Nigeria’s total debt service payments dropped significantly from $540 million in January 2025 to $276 million in February 2025.
This decline comes amid ongoing efforts by the federal government to restructure its debt portfolio, improve dollar liquidity and ease pressure on the foreign exchange market.
