The Federal Government spent N611.71bn in March 2025 to service its first-ever domestic US Dollar-denominated bond, marking a significant fiscal milestone and raising concerns about the growing weight of foreign currency-linked obligations in Nigeria’s public debt profile.
According to the latest data from the Debt Management Office, this single repayment accounted for 23.44 per cent of the N2.61tn total domestic debt service obligations recorded in the first quarter of 2025.
The bond, introduced in August 2024 under the $2bn Domestic FGN US Dollar Bond Programme, raised over $900m from local investors and was the first of its kind to be issued domestically in foreign currency.
The debut issuance was 180 per cent oversubscribed and has since been listed on the Nigerian Exchange and the FMDQ Exchange. It was later recognised as the “West Africa Deal of the Year.”
According to the DMO’s Q1 2025 report on actual domestic debt service, the bond’s interest payment of $44.97m was due on March 6 and converted at an exchange rate of N1,511.80/$. The PUNCH observed that while the $44.97m at that exchange rate would lead to an interest of N67.99bn, the DMO stated the interest rate to be N611.71bn.
