President Bola Tinubu has said punitive interest rates and an unfair global financial system are crippling Nigeria and Africa’s industrial growth.
He said the continent can not compete globally under the current lending structure.
Tinubu spoke on Tuesday at the Africa Forward Summit held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, where he led Nigeria’s government, diplomatic and business delegation.
The summit, co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President William Ruto, brought together leaders and senior officials from more than 30 countries across Africa.
Speaking on the reform of the international financial architecture, Tinubu said Africa’s economies had remained trapped in a cycle of exporting raw materials while importing finished products because industries on the continent lacked access to affordable capital.
“Last September, from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, Nigeria warned that the international system must reform or risk irrelevance. We spoke not only of the Security Council but of the financial and trade structures that quietly de-industrialise our nations. The evidence is before us. Despite decades of independence, Africa’s share of global manufacturing value added remains below 2 per cent.
“We export raw minerals, crude oil, and agricultural commodities, and we import processed goods at a premium. This pattern is not an accident. It is the product of a global financial architecture that starves our industries of affordable capital, tolerates massive illicit financial flows, and imposes policy constraints that our competitors themselves never observed when they built their own industrial bases.”
The president said Nigeria had implemented difficult economic reforms, including fuel subsidy removal, exchange rate unification, recapitalisation of the banking system and exiting the Financial Action Task Force grey list.
“Nigeria does not come to this discussion as a supplicant. We come as a nation that has taken painful, homegrown decisions to put our house in order — removing fuel subsidies, unifying our exchange rate, recapitalising our banking system with over US$3.4 billion, and exiting the FATF grey list. These reforms were sovereign choices, not external conditions. They have delivered a declining debt-to-GDP ratio, now projected at 32.3 per cent in 2026, stronger external reserves of $45.5 billion, and a return of investor confidence. But, Excellencies, even a reforming nation like Nigeria is being forced to de-industrialise by a financial system that is stacked against us,” he said.
Tinubu disclosed that Nigeria would spend about $11.6bn on debt servicing in 2026, which he described as a major obstacle to industrial expansion.
“Every single dollar that leaves our treasury to pay punitive interest rates is a dollar that did not go into our steel sector, our textile mills, our agro-processing plants, or our digital industries. It is a dollar that did not train a young Nigerian engineer or provide affordable power for our factories. Our industrial base is being starved of the blood it needs — long-term, affordable finance — while creditors and rating agencies treat African sovereigns as permanent high-risk borrowers, regardless of our fiscal performance.
“So, I ask this gathering: how can an African manufacturer compete with a competitor in Europe, Asia, or North America when the cost of borrowing in our nations is five to ten times higher? How can we build cross-border industrial value chains under the African Continental Free Trade Area when our infrastructure projects face a financing gap deepened by the very institutions meant to bridge it? The answer is plain: we cannot. The international financial architecture, as currently constituted, is an instrument of industrial disarmament for Africa.”
The president maintained that Nigeria was not seeking charity from global institutions but fair access to financing that would support industrialisation and economic competitiveness.
“Nigeria is not asking for charity. We are demanding a financial system that intentionally enables Africa to industrialise — to process its own minerals, refine its own crude oil, manufacture its own pharmaceuticals, and compete fairly in global markets. We will continue to borrow responsibly, but we insist that our creditworthiness be measured by our economic fundamentals and our industrial potential, not by outdated stereotypes,” he said.
Tinubu’s remarks come amid growing criticism over Nigeria’s rising debt profile and the Federal Government’s borrowing plans.
The president recently defended external borrowing while receiving Plateau State leaders at the State House, saying, “If we have to borrow, we borrow. Borrowing is not leprosy, we just have to work hard to be able to pay for it.”
Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, however, criticised the president’s comments. Obi described excessive borrowing for non-productive purposes as dangerous to the economy.
“Mr. President, borrowing is not only a leprosy, but a killer cancer when it is borrowed for consumption and not production as it is in Nigeria today,” Obi said in a Facebook post.
“One of the major ‘leprosy’ afflicting Nigeria today is not just debt, but debt without productivity. Debt that is not tied to measurable economic value. Debt that does not translate into jobs, growth, or improved living standards for the Nigerian people.”
Obi also questioned the legality and economic rationale behind some of the government’s loans, citing provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
“Most of the borrowings by this government do not satisfy the requirements of law or the requirements of economic common sense,” Obi claimed.
“The humongous borrowing so far does not show how the projects for the loans enhance the productive capacity of the nation and the welfare of Nigerian citizens.”
According to the Debt Management Office, Nigeria’s total public debt rose to N159.27tn at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 from N97.34tn recorded in late 2023.
The House of Representatives recently approved an additional $516.3m external loan for the Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway following Tinubu’s request in March for a $6bn external borrowing plan.
