Business · West Africa
Tinubu asks Senate to approve $21.7bn in new foreign loans as Oyedele calls it “investment, not borrowing”
The 2026–27 supplementary external borrowing plan — $20.52 billion plus €1.045 billion — now sits with the Senate debt committee. The finance minister says about $10.6 billion is for transport; opposition candidates want project-by-project disclosure first, 80 days before the presidential vote.
LAGOS — President Bola Tinubu has asked the Senate to approve a 2026–2027 Supplementary External Borrowing Plan of $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion — roughly $21.7 billion in total — to finance infrastructure and other projects, in a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on 27 October, Punch reported.
“In light of the need for significant infrastructure investment in the country and the vast financial resources needed to address this gap, it has become essential to pursue prudent external borrowings to close the financing shortfall,” Tinubu wrote, asking for “early approval”. The letter lists power, transport, healthcare, education, agriculture, water supply, security, job creation and financial management reforms, with most projects spread across the 36 states and the FCT.
Akpabio referred the request to the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, chaired by Senator Haruna Manu. He also said parts of the plan had featured in earlier approvals, though he was unsure of the period those covered, Punch reported.
“A plan, not a drawdown”
After Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting, Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele defended the request. “First and foremost, this is a plan. It doesn’t mean that we have borrowed. It doesn’t even mean that we borrow all of it… This is investment, not borrowing,” he said, according to ThisDay. He put transport at about $10.6 billion of the total and said about $7.9 billion is expected from multilateral and bilateral partners, including a $5 billion World Bank component at an average interest rate of about 2.1%.
The debt backdrop
The Debt Management Office put Nigeria’s total public debt at ₦166.79 trillion at the end of June 2026. The Guardian (Nigeria) calculates that this is ₦79.41 trillion more than in June 2023, noting that part of the rise reflects naira depreciation rather than new cash borrowing. Using budget implementation reports, the paper also found that only ₦374.63 billion of ₦1.32 trillion budgeted for the sinking fund to retire maturing loans between 2021 and 2025 was actually remitted.
Election-season politics
The request lands about 80 days before the presidential election. Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress candidate, urged the National Assembly to suspend consideration until every project, contractor, cost and loan term is published, in a statement reported by The Guardian. ThisDay reported criticism from Peter Obi, the Nigeria Democratic Congress candidate, and from the Makinde–Daura campaign. At the same briefing Oyedele cited foreign reserves above $55 billion and September inflation of 14.63%, down from 20.98% a year earlier.
AB24’s West Africa business desk reading: what to watch is whether the debt committee publishes the project schedule attached to the letter. Without it, the Senate is voting on sectors, not projects.
Sources: Punch, 27 Oct 2026; Reuters via CNBC Africa, 28 Oct 2026; ThisDay, 29 Oct 2026; The Guardian (Nigeria), 28 Oct 2026; Debt Management Office. Dollar conversions are as reported by these sources.
— AB24 · Lagos