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Seven of Nigeria’s largest listed companies carry a combined debt stock of at least N5.57 trillion, with bank loans and other direct borrowings accounting for the bulk of their funding even as the corporate debt market expands rapidly, Daily Sun investigations can reveal.
The seven companies with disclosed figures; Aradel Holdings, Seplat Energy, BUA Cement, Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Nestlé Nigeria and MTN Nigeria account for roughly N5.57 trillion.
According to the data gathered from the NGX website, the funding mix varies sharply across sectors and even among peers. In oil and gas, Aradel Holdings and Seplat Energy together owe about N2.92 trillion, nearly 47 per cent of the N6.25 trillion aggregate.
Aradel’s N1.81 trillion debt is almost entirely from bank and other direct loans, while about 81 per cent of Seplat’s N1.11 trillion was raised via debt securities, illustrating two contrasting approaches to corporate financing.
Among industrials, BUA Cement carries N663.21 billion in debt, with roughly 93.5 per cent sourced from bank and other loans. Dangote Cement, by contrast, shows a more balanced structure: of its N612.46 billion debt, about 44.9 per cent comes from bonds, commercial papers and other securities, with the remainder from direct lenders.
In consumer goods, Dangote Sugar Refinery and Nestlé Nigeria owe N584.15 billion and N445.01 billion respectively. Both companies have highlighted the importance of working-capital financing, with Dangote Sugar pointing to its dependence on imported raw materials, spare parts and critical chemicals, and the use of letters of credit to fund hard-currency requirements.
Nestlé’s debt includes a significant share of dollar-denominated intercompany loans, making financing costs and exchange-rate moves key drivers of profitability.
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MTN Nigeria stands out for its heavy use of the debt capital market. Of its N342.59 billion in conventional borrowings, about 92 per cent is from bonds, leaving only an estimated N27 billion from bank loans.
This structure shields the telco from the full impact of elevated bank lending rates, which remain above 30 per cent for many borrowers despite a recent marginal decline in the average maximum lending rate to 33.16 per cent in June 2026.
The continued dominance of bank loans is notable against the backdrop of rapid growth in Nigeria’s short- and long-term debt markets. Companies had raised about N1.61 trillion through commercial papers in 2025, up 40 per cent from 2024, while outstanding corporate bonds reached about N2.30 trillion by June 2026 and outstanding commercial papers stood at N465.34 billion, according to the FMDQ.
Yet debt securities cannot fully replace bank credit. Commercial papers are typically short-term and suited to working capital, while large acquisitions, industrial projects and infrastructure investments often require longer tenors and more flexible structures that banks are better positioned to provide. Access to cheaper capital-market funding also depends on credit quality, ratings and investor appetite, advantages that accrue mainly to the strongest issuers.
For Nigeria’s corporate giants, the critical question is no longer just how much they borrow, but where they borrow from, what the funds are used for, and how they can lower the cost of capital while maintaining financial flexibility.
Hence, with almost three-quarters of the debt among the reviewed firms still tied to bank loans, many remain exposed to high borrowing costs, particularly those that regularly refinance short-term facilities or carry floating-rate debt.
