BREAKING: Tinubu Writes Nat’l Assembly, Seeks Approval For Fresh Foreign Loan

President Bola Tinubu has written to the National Assembly, seeking approval for a fresh N1.767 trillion external borrowing plan to part-finance the budget deficit of N9.7 trillion for the 2024 budget.

This online medium reports that Nigeria’s growing foreign debt obligations have been of concern lately, and this has been exacerbated by the liberalization of exchange rates, making loan repayment more expensive.

According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Government spent $3.58 billion servicing the country’s foreign debt in the first nine months of 2024, representing a 39.77% increase from the $2.56 billion spent during the same period in 2023.

The highest monthly debt servicing payment in 2024 occurred in May, amounting to $854.37 million.

The breakdown of the country’s debt servicing payments are as follows:

January 2024: $560.52 million (398.89% increase from January 2023)

February 2024: $283.22 million (1.84% decline from February 2023)
March 2024: $276.17 million (31.04% drop from March 2023)
April 2024: $215.20 million (131.77% rise from April 2023)
May 2024: $854.37 million (286.52% increase from May 2023)
June 2024: $50.82 million (6.51% decline from June 2023)

July 2024: $542.50 million (15.48% reduction from July 2023)
August 2024: $279.95 million (9.69% decline from August 2023)
September 2024: $515.81 million (17.49% increase from September 2023)