A recent International Debt Report released for 2023 has shown that Nigeria was the highest recipient of fresh loans in 2022, receiving $2.9 billion from the World Bank.
This was followed by Tanzania, which got $2.7 billion in the same year.
The report, which is an annual publication that features the external debt statistics for over 100 low and medium-income countries, revealed that $443.5 billion was spent by developing countries on debt servicing in four decades (40 years), of which Nigeria is among.
The World Bank said, “Debt-service payments—which include principal and interest—increased by 5 per cent over the previous year for all developing countries. The 75 countries eligible to borrow from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA)—which supports the poorest countries—paid $88.9 billion in debt-servicing costs in 2022.
“Over the past decade, interest payments by these countries have quadrupled, to an all-time high of $23.6 billion in 2022. The report finds that debt-servicing costs for the 24 poorest countries are expected to balloon in 2023 and 2024—by as much as 39 per cent.”
Further findings by The ICIR show that as of June 30 2023, Nigeria owes the World Bank $14.5 billion, according to data ovation from the Debt Management Office website.
The ICIR has also reported how each Nigerian currently owes N396,376.19 in terms of debt per capita due to the public debt which increased by 75.27 per cent to N87.38 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2023.
As of the second quarter of 2023, the total external debts by the federal government stood at N29.9 trillion.
Recall that during the budget presentation, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, urged Presiden Bola Tinubu to work towards reducing Nigeria’s debt profile.
However, this came after the National Assembly, under Akpabio’s leadership, approved Tinubu’s request to borrow $800 million from the World Bank to help cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria in July.
The Washington-based global lender said that the Surging interest rates have intensified debt vulnerabilities in all developing countries.
“In the past three years alone, there have been 18 sovereign defaults in 10 developing countries—greater than the number recorded in all of the previous two decades. Today, about 60 per cent of low-income countries are at high risk of debt distress or already in it”, it noted.
The ICIR has reported how Nigeria secured three loans totalling $1.95 billion from the World Bank three months after Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2022.
Kehinde Ogunyale tells stories by using data to hold power into account. You can send him a mail at jameskennyogunyale@gmail or Twitter: Prof_KennyJames | LinkedIn: Kehinde Ogunyale