Despite encouraging signals from the economic reforms by the present administration, worries ate being expressed as Nigeria’s total public debt climbed to N152.39 trillion in the second quarter of 2025, up from N149.38 trillion recorded in the first quarter, according to new data released on Monday by the nation’s Bureau of Statistics, (NBS).
More worrisome is the fact that the 2.01 percent quarter-on-quarter increase reflects the country’s rising domestic and external borrowing obligations, despite the promise by President Bola Tinubu that domestic borrowing would reduce following rise in the revenue to the National coffers.
Some analysts have warned that the country’s public debt is moving towards an unsustainable territory, a development , they argue, may threaten the sovereignty of the country, as the situation is compounded by structural inefficiencies weak revenue and rising servicing costs.
Specifically, NBS report shows that Nigeria’s external debt stood at N71.84 trillion (46.98 billion dollars), while domestic debt amounted to N80.55 trillion (52.67 billion dollars) in Q2 2025.
The bureau noted that external debt accounted for 47.14% of total public debt (in naira terms), while domestic debt represented 52.86% during the period.
States’ Indebtedness
Lagos State remained the country’s most indebted subnational, posting a domestic debt profile of N1.04 trillion in Q2 2025. It was followed by Rivers State with N364.39 billion.
Jigawa State recorded the lowest domestic debt at N852.49 million, while Ondo followed with N10.64 billion.
Similarly, Lagos led on the external front with 1.04 billion dollars, followed by Kaduna State with 658.70 million dollars.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) posted the lowest external debt at 19.26 million dollars.
According to the Debt Management Office, the Federal Government borrowed N6.17 trillion from the domestic debt market in the first half of 2025.
The borrowings were mainly sourced through FGN Bonds, Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs), and Promissory Notes (P-Notes), which form part of the nation’s domestic debt structure.
The DMO noted that N4.48 trillion was raised in Q1 2025, with an additional N1.70 trillion secured in Q2 — representing a 2.26% increase over the previous quarter.
Worrisome Debt Service Payments
Nairametrics had reported that Nigeria’s external debt service payments rose to $932.1 million in the second quarter of 2025.
Data from the DMO showed that Nigeria’s external debt service payments rose to $932.1m in the second quaryer of rhe year, out of which 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