Tinubu Presidency Claims IMF Debt Cleared, But Data Shows N274Billion Still Owed In Charges

In line with the most modern replace from the IMF, printed on April 30, 2025, Nigeria is anticipated to pay SDR22.35 million in prices and former-time in 2025.

Basically the most most modern knowledge printed by the Global Monetary Fund (IMF) reveals that Nigeria owes a total of SDR125.ninety 9 million, representing prices and former-time on loans it has drawn.

“SDR” formula “Special Drawing Rights” and refers to a have of foreign money feeble to payment funds borrowed by assorted beneficiary countries by the IMF.

In line with the foreign money replace platform XE, every SDR unit change into as soon as payment N2,180 on the time of this fable.

In line with the most modern replace from the IMF, printed on April 30, 2025, Nigeria is anticipated to pay SDR22.35 million in prices and former-time in 2025. 

For 2026 and 2027, the figure is projected to stay real at SDR25.91 million. In 2028, the quantity rises a bit of to SDR25.92 million, sooner than dipping marginally to SDR25.90 million in 2029.

In total, Nigeria’s outstanding prices and former-time to the IMF quantity to SDR125.ninety 9 million. At an replace payment of N2,180 per Special Drawing Accurate (SDR), primarily based entirely on XE foreign money conversion, this interprets to roughly N274.66 billion.

Nigeria’s debt to the IMF originates from April 2020, when the country secured a loan approval of SDR2.454 billion.

IMF debt repayments are made up of two parts: the predominant and connected prices or hobby.

Further breakdown reveals that Nigeria change into as soon as no longer scheduled to initiate repaying the predominant till 2023, when SDR613.63 million grew to change into due. This change into as soon as followed by a elevated compensation of SDR1.227 billion in 2024, and every other SDR613.63 million scheduled for 2025.

Before predominant repayments commenced, Nigeria paid very best prices and pursuits totalling SDR13.22 million in 2020, SDR25.88 million in 2021, and SDR25.89 million in 2022.

With predominant repayments starting in 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu—who assumed place of commercial that year—has overseen the continuing debt servicing.

As of April 30, 2025, IMF knowledge confirms that Nigeria has met its scheduled predominant repayments, but mild owes SDR125.ninety 9 million in prices and former-time.

Citing knowledge from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) 2024 financial year fable, SaharaReporters published that the country’s debt burden to the Global Monetary Fund (IMF) elevated by N2.5 trillion by the tip of December 2024, primarily attributable to international replace losses.

In purposeful phrases, Nigeria’s licensed responsibility to the IMF stood at N2.5 trillion in 2023. On the opposite hand, the engaging depreciation of the Naira over the route of 2024 induced that figure to double, reaching N5 trillion by year-discontinue. 

In line with the CBN’s financial assertion, this effectively supposed that the country needed to pay twice as powerful in native foreign money to meet its external tasks.

SaharaReporters also pointed out a contradiction between this knowledge and most modern claims by government officers, including presidential aides that Nigeria had “cleared” its money owed to the IMF. Whereas presidential aides Bayo Onanuga and Dada Olusegun publicly challenged the fable—sustaining that the IMF debt had been entirely repaid—the facts tells a extra nuanced memoir.

Even supposing Nigeria would possibly per chance moreover own met its scheduled predominant repayments, the IMF mild lists prices and former-time beneath “behind tasks and projected price funds,” indicating that the country remains indebted in that regard.

SaharaReporters stood by its reporting, emphasising that even supposing the predominant change into as soon as repaid, the weakened payment of the Naira vastly elevated the financial burden on Nigeria in native foreign money phrases. This skill that, the federal government needed to allocate extra public funds than it would own if the Naira had retained its payment.

In Nigeria, debt servicing has repeatedly been blamed for drinking powerful of the nation’s revenue.

As an instance, a SaharaReporters overview of Nigeria’s economic fable for January 2025 published that the country spent N696 billion on debt servicing all the procedure by procedure of that month alone. Between December 2024 and January 2025, the total quantity spent on debt servicing reached N1.3 trillion — N696 billion in every of the two months. 

This exceeds the budgeted monthly figure of N689 billion for debt servicing.

The overview also showed that zero naira change into as soon as allocated for capital expenditure in January 2025, as talked about within the industrial fable printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.