By Omoniyi David<\/p>\n
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, has cautioned against Nigeria\u2019s growing debt profile, urging stronger parliamentary oversight, transparent borrowing, and prudent debt management.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the 11th Annual Conference of the West Africa Association of Public Accounts Committees (WAAPAC), in Abuja, Abbas: represented by House Leader Prof. Julius Ihonvbere said public debt, if well managed, can drive growth and development, but when unchecked, it erodes economic stability and threatens future generations.<\/p>\n
He noted that Nigeria\u2019s total debt had risen to N149.39 trillion (about $97bn) in Q1 2025, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 52%, surpassing the legal ceiling of 40%.<\/p>\n
He lamented that most national revenue is now devoted to debt servicing rather than critical investments in infrastructure, education, health, and innovation.<\/p>\n
On Africa\u2019s debt burden, Abbas disclosed that the continent\u2019s public debt reached $1.8 trillion by 2022, with external loans projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2023.<\/p>\n
He listed Sudan (344%), Angola (136.8%), Ghana (84%), Kenya (70%), and South Africa (77%) as countries already in dangerous debt-to-GDP territories.<\/p>\n
He further explained that Africa\u2019s government debt is held by Western private lenders (35%), multilateral institutions (39%), bilateral partners (13%), and Chinese creditors (12%).<\/p>\n
Abbas urged African nations to demand fairer loan terms, strengthen domestic revenue mobilisation, and expand intra-African trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis conference comes at the right time as our nations face mounting fiscal pressures. Oversight of public debt is not just a democratic duty but a moral responsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His remarks align with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritises fiscal discipline, prudent financial management, and investments in infrastructure, education, green energy, and social welfare.<\/p>\n
Just last week, Tinubu announced that Nigeria had already met its 2025 revenue target by August, mainly through non-oil revenue reducing reliance on external borrowing.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I can stand here before you to brag: Nigeria is not borrowing. We have met our revenue target for the year, and we met it in August,\u201d the president declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Omoniyi David The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, has cautioned against Nigeria\u2019s growing debt profile, urging stronger parliamentary oversight, transparent borrowing, and prudent debt management. Speaking at the 11th Annual Conference of the West Africa Association of Public Accounts Committees (WAAPAC), in Abuja, Abbas: represented by House Leader Prof. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":75248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75249,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75247\/revisions\/75249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}