Nigeria to Allocate $11.6B to Debt Servicing in 2026

President Bola Tinubu announced Tuesday that Nigeria will allocate approximately $11.6 billion to debt servicing in 2026, a figure representing nearly half of the country's projected government revenue. Speaking at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, Tinubu highlighted how these costs are diverting funds from critical sectors like infrastructure, healthcare, education, industry and skills development.

The summit, cohosted by Kenya and France, gathered leaders from more than 30 countries to discuss investment, artificial intelligence, agriculture, creative industries and climate change. Tinubu, now in his third year as president, argued that high borrowing costs and limited access to long-term finance impose a structural disadvantage on African economies. "Every single dollar that leaves our treasury to pay punitive interest rates is a dollar that did not go into our steel sector, our textile mills, our agroprocessing plants, or our digital industries," he said.

He attributed the burden to a global financial system that categorizes African sovereigns as persistently high-risk borrowers, regardless of fiscal improvements. Nigeria's Debt Management Office data showed $5.15...