Nigeria spent about $2.01bn on external debt servicing between January and April 2025, marking a 50 per cent increase compared to the $1.33bn recorded during the same period in 2024.
This is according to the latest international payments data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria on its website, which was obtained by The PUNCH on Wednesday.
The data showed that debt servicing alone accounted for 77.1 per cent of Nigeria’s total international payments within the four months, a sharp rise from the 64.5 per cent share recorded in the same period of 2024.
In total, the country’s international payments, comprising debt service, remittances, and letters of credit, stood at $2.60bn as of April 2025, up from $2.07bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.
The figures highlight the increasing burden of external debt on Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves, which reportedly fell by about $3bn during the review period. An analysis of the monthly trend shows that Nigeria paid $540.67m in January 2025, slightly below the $560.52m recorded in January 2024.
In February, the figure stood at $276.73m, almost unchanged from the $283.22m paid in February 2024.
