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Business NigeriaMarkets Checked story Published 7 November 2026 · Updated 7 Nov, 13:52 UTC

Nigeria's external debt rose 6.6% to $145 billion in 2025, World Bank says

Nigeria's external debt stock rose to $145.015 billion at the end of 2025, up 6.6 percent from 2024, according to the World Bank's International Debt Report 2026, released on 5 November. The total is made up of $62.4 billion in public and publicly guaranteed debt, $54.476 billion in private nonguaranteed debt and $28.139 billion in short-term debt. The Bank said developing countries' external debt rose 5.5 percent to a record $9.4 trillion in 2025, and warned that high borrowing costs are leaving less for development.

The Central Bank of Nigeria headquarters in Abuja (file photo)
Photo: via Wikimedia Commons · (File photo — not from this event)

Key points

  • Nigeria's external debt: $145.015 billion at the end of 2025, up 6.6% in a year and $61.8 billion in a decade.
  • Less than half — $62.4 billion — is government and government-guaranteed debt; the rest is private and short-term.
  • Servicing the debt took 19% of export earnings in 2025, a bigger share than the year before.
  • New private borrowing costs Nigeria 9.6% on average, against 1.9% from official creditors.
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What happened

External debt is what a country's residents — government, companies and banks together — owe to lenders abroad, which is why the World Bank's $145 billion is far larger than the federal government's own external borrowing alone. The government and government-guaranteed share is $62.4 billion of it.

The report says 2025 brought developing countries back to international bond markets in force, but at the highest prices in decades for the poorest borrowers. More than a quarter of the global increase in public debt stocks reflected the weaker US dollar raising the dollar value of debts owed in other currencies.

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Claim by claim

5 verified· 0 disputed· 0 not yet verified· 0 corrected
Verified
Nigeria's total external debt stock stood at $145.015 billion at the end of 2025, a 6.6 percent increase from 2024, and up about $61.8 billion from $83.213 billion in 2015.

Why this label: The World Bank's International Debt Report 2026 figures, reported in full by The Sun Nigeria, read in full, and by VMT News; News Central gives the 2024 comparison as $136.05 billion, which matches the 6.6 percent rise.

On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.

Sources: The Sun Nigeria — Nigeria's external debt hits $145bn as World Bank warns of costly borrowing (6 Nov 2026; read in full) · VMT News — Developing countries' external debt hits record $9.4trn in 2025 – World Bank (6 Nov 2026) · News Central — World Bank: Nigeria owes China $5.7 billion in bilateral loans (7 Nov 2026)
Verified
The $145.015 billion is made up of $62.4 billion in public and publicly guaranteed debt, $54.476 billion in private nonguaranteed debt and $28.139 billion in short-term debt. Within the public and publicly guaranteed share, multilateral creditors hold $31.365 billion, including $18.533 billion owed to the World Bank's International Development Association.

Why this label: The breakdown and the creditor split agree between The Sun Nigeria's full report of the Bank's tables and Rave News Online's report of the same report.

On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.

Sources: The Sun Nigeria — Nigeria's external debt hits $145bn as World Bank warns of costly borrowing (6 Nov 2026; read in full) · Rave News Online — Nigeria's external debt hits $145bn as servicing burden rises — World Bank (7 Nov 2026)
Verified
Nigeria's external debt stood at 51 percent of gross national income and 212 percent of exports in 2025, while debt service took 19 percent of exports and 5 percent of GNI — the service ratios rose even as the debt ratios fell.

Why this label: All four ratios are in the Bank's report as reported in full by The Sun Nigeria: debt-to-exports down 4.3 percent and debt-to-GNI down 6.6 percent, debt-service-to-exports up 9.6 percent and debt-service-to-GNI up 6.9 percent.

On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.

Sources: The Sun Nigeria — Nigeria's external debt hits $145bn as World Bank warns of costly borrowing (6 Nov 2026; read in full)
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Verified
For Nigeria's new borrowing in 2025, the report puts the average interest rate on new official-creditor commitments at 1.9 percent, against 9.6 percent for private creditors; Nigeria also raised $2.3 billion in a dual-tranche sovereign bond issue, at 8.625 percent over 10 years and 9.125 percent over 20 years.

Why this label: The rates, maturities and the bond issue are in the Bank's report as reported in full by The Sun Nigeria.

On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.

Sources: The Sun Nigeria — Nigeria's external debt hits $145bn as World Bank warns of costly borrowing (6 Nov 2026; read in full)
Verified
Across developing countries, external debt jumped 5.5 percent to a record $9.4 trillion in 2025, the fastest pace since 2021, and low- and middle-income countries paid $1.4 trillion in debt service, a fifth consecutive annual increase. The Bank's chief statistician, Haishan Fu, said these countries are 'borrowing more, paying more, and in many cases leaving less for long-term development.'

Why this label: The global figures and Fu's words are from the World Bank's own press release for the report, read in full.

On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.

Sources: World Bank — Developing countries' external debt surges to record $9.4 trillion (press release, 5 Nov 2026; read in full)

What we know / what we don't know yet

What we know

  • The figures are the World Bank's, from its International Debt Report 2026, released 5 November 2026.
  • The total covers all Nigerian residents' external debts, not the federal government's alone.

What we don't know yet

  • The Nigerian government's response to the report — no statement had been read when this story was published.

Why it matters

Every dollar of debt service is a dollar not spent on roads, schools or clinics. Nigeria's stock grew more slowly than its exports and income in 2025, but the bill for servicing it grew faster — and the gap between cheap official loans and expensive market borrowing is now the central fact of Nigerian public finance.

Background

  • Nigeria's external debt stock stands at $83.213 billion.

  • The stock reaches $136.05 billion.

  • The World Bank releases the International Debt Report 2026, putting Nigeria's end-2025 stock at $145.015 billion.

Update history

No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.

  • Latest

    Published. Basis: the World Bank's International Debt Report 2026 and its own press release.

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