Stakeholders have called for debt relief through reparations and reparative justice for African countries, enabling them to invest in climate-friendly initiatives to drive sustainable economic growth.
At one one-day National Debt Conference organised by the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) in collaboration with the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) in Abuja, on the theme: “Nigeria’s Rising Debt: Advancing Debt Relief through Reparations and Reparative Justice.”
The executive director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, represented by Leo Atakpu, said Nigeria and some African nations stand at a crossroads. As part of the global community, we are contending with overlapping crises, including the climate emergency, the lingering effects of COVID-19, the impact of the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East, the rise of artificial intelligence, irregular migration, and a crippling debt burden.
He emphasised that this crisis had hit African countries hardest, resulting in widespread poverty, underdevelopment, insecurity, and violent conflicts. With only five years remaining to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is increasingly evident that Africa is being left behind—contrary to the global commitment to “leave no one behind.”
According to Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO), the country’s total public debt as of March 31, 2025, stood at $97.2 billion, equivalent to ₦149.3 trillion.
Experts have raised concerns that Nigeria’s debt might become unsustainable, as it approaches the 40% debt-to-GDP threshold, he said.
On his part, the minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, represented by the director of Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Olatunde Oniyanda, said, “Nigeria, like many African nations, faces a growing public debt burden with profound implications for our economy, development, and national security.”
He said while the debt-to-GDP ratio remains within moderate limits, debt servicing costs, foreign exchange pressures, and limited fiscal space are creating significant challenges.
In recent years, the debt service-to-revenue ratio has exceeded 90%, severely limiting the government’s ability to invest in critical sectors like education, health, infrastructure, and climate resilience.
Meanwhile, a development expert, Comrade Ene Obi, said “Nigerians are facing a severe cost-of-living crisis due to recent policy reforms. The government talks about stabilisation, but we’ve only seen increased poverty, job losses, and factory closures.”
“Nigerian leaders are not listening to the people. The IMF and World Bank imposed harmful policies, like the devaluation of the Naira. Since then, many factories have shut down – and continue to do so.”
Both past and present administrations have continued to borrow from the IMF, World Bank, and private lenders, often without fully accounting for the long-term economic consequences. Of the 2025 budget of ₦54.9 trillion, ₦14.3 trillion – 26% of the total budget – has been allocated to debt servicing. This exceeds the combined allocations for health, education, agriculture, and social welfare.
He said Nigeria, along with many other African countries, continues to lose substantial resources through illicit financial flows (IFFs). According to a recent report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Nigeria alone loses $18 billion annually, while Africa as a whole loses $90 billion per year to IFFS and another $140 billion to corruption.
This includes grand and political corruption, with most of the funds stashed in offshore safe havens, primarily in Western countries. Moreover, the neoliberal policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank have negatively impacted African economies, exacerbating poverty, unemployment, and social unrest.
In its April 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief, the World Bank reported that 75% of rural dwellers and 41.3% of urban residents in Nigeria live in poverty. This increase is attributed to worsening economic inequality and hardship, especially in rural areas.
Nigerians are experiencing severe cost-of-living pressures resulting from recent government reforms. While these reforms were meant to stabilise the macroeconomic environment, they have instead deepened poverty, unemployment, and inflation, he concluded.”
The World Bank projects that Nigeria’s poverty will rise by 3.6% by 2027 due to continued economic headwinds. In 2018, Nigeria overtook India as the poverty capital of the world, with 86.7 million people living below the poverty line of $2.15 per day. By 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics reported that 133 million Nigerians were multidimensionally poor.
Insecurity continues to ravage parts of Nigeria. Many farmers can no longer access their lands, reducing food production and threatening national food security. Kidnapping for ransom is rampant, and bandits and insurgents have overtaken major food-producing areas.
Despite the billions of naira allocated annually for defence, reports of fund diversion by corrupt officials within the military and police persist, undermining national security efforts.
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