BY BONNY AMADI WITH AGENCY REPORT
The Nigerian government is expected to receive new loans from the World Bank, totalling $2.2 billion or about N3.5trillion in 2025.
The Washington-based financial institution’s project list, in its report, stated that $2.2 billion will be cut across six different projects.
Nigeria’s World Bank’s financial commitments continue to rise with the $2.2 billion slated for 2025. The debt as at 2023 stood at $2.7bn, rose to $4.32bn in 2024, and the expected $2.2bn in 2025.
The trend shows Nigeria’s growing dependency on World Bank financing to drive reforms and investments.
However, according to the report, The World Bank earmarked $500 million for the ‘Community Action (for) Resilience and Economic Stimulus Programme,’ which will be approved by March 17.
On March 31, the World Bank plans to approve $552 million for the ‘HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All’ and $800 million for ‘Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria 2.0’.
Also, the World Bank said it will approve $300 million for the ‘Solutions for the Internally Dis- placed and Host Communities Project’ on July 15 and another $300 million for the ‘Health Security Program’ on August 19.
Another project, ‘Building Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Growth (BRIDGE)’ will also receive $500 million after approval on September 15.
The World Bank said the BRIDGE initiative and the Health Security Programme are in the concept review stage, implying that they are still in the early stages of assessment and planning.
Also, the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria 2.0 and the HOPE for Quality Basic Education projects have progressed to the negotiation stage.
The multilateral lender gave Nigeria $1.5 billion in 2024 for a number of significant development initiatives meant to strengthen the country’s ability to mobilise resources and maintain economic stability.
In November, 2024, it was reported that Nigeria’s loan exposure from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) rose to $17.1 billion as of September 30, 2024.
According to the IDA’s financial statement for September 2024, Nigeria maintained the third spot in the latest top 10 borrowers’ list. As of December 31, 2024, Nigeria’s exposure dropped to $16.8 billion, but it still retained its position as the third-largest debtor to the World Bank’s IDA.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s public debt stock which includes external and domestic debt stood at N121.67 trillion (US$91.46 billion) in Q1 2024 from N97.34 trillion (US$ 108.23 billion) in Q4 2023, The NBS report indicated a growth rate of 24.99% on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
Total external debt stood at N56.02 trillion (US$42.12 billion) in Q1 2024, while total domestic debt was N65.65 trillion (US$49.35 billion). The share of external debt (in naira value) to total public debt was 46.05% in Q1 2024, while the share of domestic debt (in naira value) to total public debt was 53.95%.
Lagos state recorded the highest domestic debt in Q1 2024 with N929.41 billion, followed by Delta with N334.90 billion.
Jigawa state recorded the lowest domestic debt with N2.07 billion, followed by Ondo with N16.40 billion.
Further on Nigerian debt, the Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO) revealed that the country’s total public debt reached N142.32trn (US$88.89bn) by the end of Q3 2024.
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