NIGERIA PAID FIVE TIMES MORE FOR PRIVATE FOREIGN LOANS AS EXTERNAL DEBT HIT $145BN
Nigeria paid an average interest rate of 9.6 percent on new external borrowing from private creditors in 2025, compared with just 1.9 percent on new commitments from official lenders, according to the World Bank Group’s International Debt Statistics 2026. Official loans carried an average maturity of 25 years and a five-year grace period, while private financing averaged 12 years to maturity and an eight-year grace period. The World Bank put Nigeria’s total external debt stock at $145.015 billion in 2025, up 6.6 percent from $135.988 billion in 2024 and about $61.8 billion above its 2015 level. Importantly, that figure covers public debt, private nonguaranteed borrowing and short-term external liabilities and is broader than the Federal Government-focused external debt statistics published by Nigeria’s Debt Management Office.