Nigeria’s external debt service payments rose to $932.1 million in the second quarter of 2025.
This is according to the latest data from the Debt Management Office (DMO), reflecting the country’s ongoing fiscal pressure from rising external obligations.
The report, titled “Actual External Debt Service Payments for April – June 2025,” shows that the total amount covered payments to multilateral, bilateral, and commercial creditors, with multilateral institutions accounting for the bulk of the expenditure.
The data further showed that out of the total $932.1 million, multilateral creditors received $629.38 million, representing nearly 68% of total external debt service in the quarter.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), China Development Bank (CDB), and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) classified by the Debt Management Office (DMO) as bilateral creditors received a combined total of $41.18 million, while payments to commercial creditors, including Eurobond holders and Unicredit SPA, amounted to $261.55 million.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) emerged as the single largest recipient, with $415.6 million paid in principal obligations alone—nearly half of Nigeria’s total external debt service for the quarter.
Other key creditors
According to the DMO, other payments under the multilateral category include:
- International Development Association (IDA): $121.37 million
- International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD): $36.21 million
- African Development Bank (AfDB): $43.75 million
- African Development Fund (ADF): $3.66 million
- Islamic Development Bank (IsDB): $2.22 million
- European Development Fund (EDF): $1.69 million
Under the bilateral category, payments were dominated by:
- Agence Française de Développement (AFD): $34.48 million
- China Development Bank (CDB): $6.64 million
- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA): $61,529
In the commercial category, Nigeria paid $260.07 million in interest on Eurobonds, while Unicredit SPA received $1.47 million.
What you should know
Nigeria spent over $2.01 billion on external debt servicing between January and April 2025, marking a 50% jump compared to the same period in 2024.
Nairametrics earlier reported that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed that Nigeria fully repaid the $3.4 billion financial support it received under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to cushion the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As of April 30, 2025, Nigeria has fully repaid the financial support of about US$3.4 billion it requested and received in April 2020 from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Rapid Financing Instrument to help alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp fall in oil prices,” the IMF stated.
The Fund, however, noted that despite the full repayment of the principal, Nigeria will continue to make annual payments of about $30 million related to Special Drawing Rights (SDR) charges over the coming years. These charges arise from the difference between Nigeria’s SDR holdings and its cumulative SDR allocation.
The DMO reported that Nigeria’s total domestic debt stock has risen to N76.59 trillion as of mid-2025.
The figures show that Federal Government Bonds (FGN Bonds) continue to dominate the country’s domestic debt portfolio, accounting for N60.65 trillion, or 79.18 percent of the total.
Nairametrics earlier reported that Nigeria’s total domestic debt service reached N1.707 trillion in the second quarter of 2025.
The data shows that the country spent N1.686 trillion on interest payments across multiple debt instruments and N20.14 billion on principal repayments, bringing the total to N1,707,087,151,475.90 for the three-month period.
In its most recent assessment, the World Bank projected that Nigeria’s public debt will drop from 42.9 to 39.8% of GDP, for the first time in over a decade.
