Nigeria’s borrowing from the World Bank has increased by 121.46% under the current president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Nigeria’s total debt to the World Bank soared during the course of seven years by N3.52 trillion which is in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s exchange rate, N460.53 per dollar as at April 23, 2023.
The country’s debt to the bank soared from N2.9 trillion in December 2015 to N6.42 trillion in December 2022 ($6.29 billion and $13.93 billion respectively) as revealed by the Debt Management Office’s external debt stock reports.
The West African country has, over the years, obtained loans from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
IBRD lends to governments of average income and low-income nations with acceptable credit rating while IDA proffers grants and franchise loans to the world’s poorest nations’ governments.
Often times, the World Bank chains the loans approved by the bank to Nigeria to diverse national projects. Nigeria has been raised to the list of the top 10 international Development Association lenders as a result of the increasing debt, based on reports.
On the list of the lenders, the West African country was ranked fifth with debt stock of $11.7 billion in IDA in June 30, 2021. Nigeria replaced Vietnam as the fourth largest debtor in June 30, 2022 with a $13 billion IDA debt stock.
Unlike Nigeria, the top five countries on the list slightly reduced their IDA debt stock while the World Bank revealed that Nigeria’s debt is hazardous and expensive even though manageable for the time being.
