…Drops Former $20.5Bn Borrowing Plan
President Bola Tinubu has requested the Senate to approve a new $7.707 billion (N10.79 trillion) to part-finance the 2026 budget deficit, implying the withdrawal of his earlier request forwarded to the upper legislative chamber about two weeks ago for $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion external borrowing.
In a letter dated October 26, 2026, read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during plenary on Wednesday, the President clarified that the proposed borrowing remained the external component of the N29.2 trillion new borrowing already approved in the 2026 Appropriation Act to finance a deficit of N31.4 trillion.
According to him, of the N29.2 trillion, N18.4 trillion is to be raised from domestic sources, while N10.79 trillion will come from external sources.
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Tinubu solicited the Senate’s authorisation for the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy and the Debt Management Office (DMO) to execute the borrowing based on the provisions of Sections 21(1) and 27(1) of the DMO Act, 2003.
Tinubu stated that the $7.7bn would be raised through a combination of Eurobond issuance -which he described as faster to conclude and able to raise larger amounts at relatively lower cost — concessional and commercial facilities from multilateral and bilateral institutions, IMF facilities, bridge financing, and direct borrowing from international financial institutions. Final terms, interest rates and repayment periods, he said, will be determined at the time of pricing.
He disclosed that the funds were earmarked for projects in defence and security, transportation, agriculture, power, education and healthcare.
Speaking on the latest request of the President, Akpabio said the new letter effectively superseded the earlier request, describing it as more explicit on financing arrangements.
Consequently, the President’s request has been referred to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts for consideration.
Latest data reeled out by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on public stock showed that as of the end of the first half of this year (H1 2026), Nigeria’s total public debt stood at N166.79 trillion ($120.93bn), comprising N91.59 trillion domestic and N75.20 trillion external components.
If approved by the National Assembly, the new $7.7bn request by Tinubu would raise the nation’s external debt from $54.52bn to about $62.2bn and total debt profile to about N177.6 trillion.
It would be recalled that the approved 2026 budget had allocated N15.8 trillion to debt servicing this fiscal year, representing about 45% of projected revenue.
So far, the Federal Government spent N5.28 trillion servicing domestic debt in the first half of 2026 alone, noting that the loan will support the naira, fund infrastructure and is cheaper than domestic borrowing at the 23% Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)
Describing the loan as taken for investment and not consumption, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele maintained that the borrowings would strengthen the naira exchange rate and fund key infrastructure projects like the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, which are very critical to achieving the $1 trillion economy by 2030.
