By Seun Ibiyemi
Nigeria’s debt profile has increased $14.34billion as the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari borrowed $410million in first quarter of 2023 from the World Bank according to report obtained.
The data obtained from the Washington-based bank showed that Nigeria had a debt of $488.66million from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and $13.85 billion from International Development Association (IDA)as of March 31, 2023.
This shows an increase from the $13.93billion debt recorded by the Debt Management Office (DMO) as of December 31, 2022.
This means that fresh disbursements on approved loans added $410million to Nigeria’s debt from the World Bank in the first quarter of 2023.
Nigeria’s borrowing from the World Bank rose by 121.46 per cent under the regime of the President Muhammadu Buhari.
It was learnt that the total debt owed to the World Bank Group by Nigeria rose by $7.64billion.
The IBRD lends to governments of middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries, while the IDA provides concessionary loans – called credits – and grants to governments of the poorest countries.
It was observed that the first World Bank loan was acquired in the fiscal year of 1947, according to data from the World Bank.
Since that period, Nigeria has acquired a total of $7.49billion from IBRD and $26.17billion from IDA.
The means that a total of $33.66billion has been borrowed from the World Bank since 1947.
It was also observed that about $7.29billlion had been repaid on the loans, with $7.86billion yet to be disbursed by the bank.
The data also showed that about $3.28billion approved loans were further cancelled.
Recall that DMO, in a statement, noted that the borrowing from the World Bank’s IDA was a positive development for Nigeria.
The statement read in part, “Positive development in the sense that IDA Loans are concessional, that is, they attract low charges and are for very long tenors in some cases, exceeding 30 years. These are the types of loans required to fund development in countries such as Nigeria.
“By accessing IDA funding, the government is actively reducing debt service costs, since non-concessional funding is usually more expensive and for shorter tenors. Indeed, it will be inefficient for Nigeria to borrow from commercial sources when concessional funding sources such as IDA is available.”
The DMO said that it is a plus that Nigeria qualifies for such loans.
It added that borrowing from the IDA aligns with Nigeria’s Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy (2020-2023), which requires the country to “maximise funds available to Nigeria from Multilateral and Bilateral sources in order to access cheaper and long-tenored funds.”