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From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
The Federal Government has dismissed claims that President Bola Tinubu administration had borrowed about N80 trillion in three years, describing such figures as exaggerated and the result of Naira revaluation and accounting adjustments rather than fresh loans.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, made the clarification while briefing the Senate Committee on Finance on the state of the economy yesterday at the National Assembly, insisting that the actual borrowing by the current administration was nowhere near the figure being circulated in public.
He was responding to concerns raised by Adamu Aliero, who noted that the administration had accumulated about N80 trillion in debt in addition to the N75 trillion it inherited.
According to Oyedele, when the Tinubu administration assumed office, Nigeria’s public debt stood at about N75 trillion, but subsequent depreciation of the Naira significantly increased the naira value of the country’s external debt.
“When this administration came into office, public debt was around N75 trillion. Many people simply compare that figure with today’s debt stock and conclude that this government has borrowed massively.
“However, following the reforms and the depreciation of the Naira, the foreign currency component of our public debt had to be reevaluated because Nigeria reports its debt in Naira. That accounting adjustment alone added more than N40 trillion to the public debt figure,” he said.
He added that another major contributor to the increase was the securitisation of about N33 trillion in Ways and Means advances inherited from the previous administration, which was approved by the National Assembly.
“It was not new borrowing; it was simply bringing previously existing obligations onto the official debt books. These factors have not always been properly explained, which is why the reported public debt appears much larger,” he said.
Oyedele also explained that a significant portion of the government’s domestic borrowing was used to refinance maturing debt rather than incur fresh liabilities.
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“The actual amount this administration has borrowed is nowhere near what many people believe. Even for domestic borrowing, much of it is refinancing. Debt that was borrowed previously matures and the government raises new debt to refinance it. That is not new borrowing,” he added.
He maintained that the Tinubu administration had adopted a prudent borrowing strategy, saying loans were being channelled into infrastructure and other productive investments rather than recurrent expenditure.
“This administration has been very responsible in its borrowing. We understand the concerns of Nigerians and of the distinguished senators, but we remain fully committed to debt sustainability.
“We see debt as leverage. Every Naira and every dollar borrowed should generate more value than the amount borrowed,” he explained.
The explanation, however, failed to satisfy some members of the committee, with Senate Chief Whip Tahir Monguno and Adamu Aliero expressing concern over what they described as poor implementation of the capital component of the 2026 Appropriation Act.
Monguno warned that failure to implement the budget amounted to a constitutional breach, arguing that the executive could not continue to neglect capital projects approved by the National Assembly.
At this point, the chairman of the committee, Sani Musa, intervened, assuring lawmakers that implementation of the capital component of the 2026 budget would soon improve.
Speaking after a closed-door session with Oyedele and members of the government’s economic team, Musa said the meeting focused on improving budget implementation by aligning expenditure with available revenue.
He added that the government was considering replacing the current envelope budgeting system with a performance and priority-based budgeting framework, while also reviewing the payment system for contractors to improve project execution.
