President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Tuesday, defended the loan policy of the federal government.
Onanuga reacted to a post by an X user, @Big_marvis, who compared Nigeria’s total debt and debt-to-GDP ratio with those of Egypt and South Africa.
“Egypt’s total debt is estimated at over $400 billion, with a GDP around $390 billion — debt-to-GDP above 100%. South Africa’s debt is about $580 billion, with GDP around $420 billion — roughly 135% debt-to-GDP,” the X user wrote on Monday.
“Nigeria’s total public debt is about $110 billion, with a GDP around $340 billion — roughly 35% debt-to-GDP. Yet some people keep shouting that Nigeria is the ‘loan capital of the world,” he added.
Reacting, Onanuga said: “Nigeria has not over-borrowed compared to countries like Egypt, South Africa and the West African country of Senegal. Nigeria is creditworthy and can still take more loans to finance infrastructure.”
Tinubu had on April 29 said his administration would continue to borrow whenever necessary, insisting that borrowing should not be viewed negatively.
The president stated this at the State House during a meeting with Plateau leaders led by the state governor, Caleb Mutfwang, and national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda.
“If we have to borrow, we borrow. Borrowing is not leprosy, we just have to work hard to be able to pay for it,” the president said.
Tinubu recently sought the National Assembly’s approval for different loan requests.
On March 31, Tinubu requested approval for external borrowing totalling $6bn, including a proposed $5 billion structured financing programme from First Abu Dhabi Bank in the United Arab Emirates.
On April 28, the House of Representatives approved the president’s request for an additional $516.3m loan to fund the construction of sections of the Sokoto–Badagry superhighway.
The Debt Management Office (DMO), on April 15, said Nigeria’s total public debt rose to N159.27tn at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, up from N153.29tn in the previous quarter and N144.67tn in the corresponding period of 2024.
