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•Bank to consider proposal October 29, total debt hits N166.79trn
The federal government is seeking fresh loans totalling $1.5 billion from the World Bank to fund programmes covering climate resilience, early childhood development and social protection.
This comes as Nigeria’s sovereign debt climbed to N166.79 trillion as at June this year.
The proposed financing consists of three separate $500 million loans, according to World Bank documents.
The loans are still being prepared and have not yet been approved.
The first $500 million facility is an additional financing for the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project.
The World Bank is scheduled to consider the facility on October 29, 2026.
ACReSAL operates in 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with the aim of tackling land degradation, water shortages, climate-related problems and declining agricultural productivity.
Of the proposed $500 million, about $310 million would go to dryland management, $165 million to community climate resilience, while $25 million would support institutional strengthening and project management.
The second proposed $500 million loan is for Nigeria’s Early Childhood Development Programme, which is designed to improve services for children aged zero to five and their caregivers across the 36 states and the FCT.
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The programme will cover areas such as healthcare, nutrition, early learning and childcare.
The World Bank said 40 per cent of Nigerian children under five are stunted, while fewer than half are developmentally on track. It also said only 36 per cent of children aged 36 to 59 months attend organised early-learning programmes.
The third $500 million facility is the Household Prosperity and Empowerment, Social Protection Project (HOPE-SP).
It is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s social welfare system and support poor and vulnerable households through targeted cash transfers, while improving the institutions responsible for delivering social assistance.
The World Bank estimates that 62.5 per cent of Nigerians could be living in poverty in 2026, compared with 40 per cent in 2019 and 56 per cent in 2023. All three facilities are proposed under the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), which provides financing to eligible developing countries on more concessional terms than ordinary commercial borrowing.
However, the proposed $1.5 billion is not yet an approved loan. The facilities remain at different stages of preparation, with the early-childhood and social-protection projects currently scheduled for consideration in March 2027. The fresh borrowing request comes after the World Bank approved a $1.25 billion financing programme for Nigeria earlier in 2026, aimed at supporting access to finance, digital and electricity services, as well as reforms in taxation, trade and agriculture.
Nigeria’s total public debt stood at N166.79 trillion as of June 30, 2026, according to figures cited by Nairametrics, with external debt accounting for $51.86 billion at the end of 2025.
If approved, the new facilities would, therefore, add another $1.5 billion to Nigeria’s World Bank financing pipeline, increasing the government’s available funding for social and development programmes while also adding to its future debt obligations.
