… As FG pays N5.12bn pension arrears
Nigeria’s debt to the World Bank has risen to an all-time high of $18.23 billion as at March 31, 2025, reflecting a $420 million increase in just three months and underscoring the country’s deepening reliance on multilateral financing.
The latest figure, released by the Debt Management Office (DMO), shows the World Bank now accounts for 39.7 per cent of the nation’s total external debt stock of $45.98 billion and a staggering 81.2 percent of its $22.43 billion multilateral debt portfolio.
The rise is driven largely by increased borrowings from the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s concessional lending arm, which climbed from $16.56 billion at the end of December 2024 to $16.99 billion in the first quarter of this year.
Loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the Bank’s non-concessional window, remained steady at $1.24 billion.
The upward trend coincides with the World Bank’s August 7 approval of a new $300 million facility for the Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities Project (SOLID), which is expected to benefit as many as 7.4 million people, including 1.3 million internally displaced persons in Northern Nigeria.
The project, designed to align with Nigeria’s long-term development plans and National IDP Policy, will focus on building climate-resilient infrastructure, expanding access to essential services, supporting livelihoods, and promoting social cohesion in communities worst hit by conflict and displacement.
The DMO has repeatedly warned that, while concessional loans come with favourable repayment terms, the rapid accumulation of debt is placing a growing burden on public finances.
In 2024, more than 60 percent of federal revenue was spent servicing debt, leaving limited fiscal space for infrastructure, health, education, and other critical sectors.
Economists have cautioned that unless Nigeria substantially raises domestic revenues and curbs recurrent expenditure, its debt service-to-revenue ratio could reach unsustainable levels in the near future.
In a related development, the Federal Government has released N5.12 billion for the payment of pension arrears to 90,689 retirees under the Defined Benefit Scheme, in what officials describe as part of ongoing efforts to clear inherited liabilities and uphold the welfare of senior citizens.
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) said the payment covers arrears for one or two months, depending on the department, and includes pensioners from the civil service, the police, the parastatals sector, and the former Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department.
PTAD’s Head of Corporate Communications, Olugbenga Ajayi, said that the payments follow a comprehensive verification and payroll audit exercise that removed ineligible names from the register, ensuring that only bona fide pensioners benefit.
He added that despite persistent fiscal constraints, the Tinubu administration has continued to prioritise pension obligations as part of its Renewed Hope Agenda, which places emphasis on protecting vulnerable groups, especially the elderly.
The Defined Benefit Scheme, which is funded directly from the federal budget, covers pensioners who retired before the introduction of the Contributory Pension Scheme in 2004.
Payment backlogs have been a recurring source of hardship for many retirees, some of whom depend solely on their pensions for survival.
PTAD said the latest disbursement would bring relief to thousands of households, while efforts continue to clear the remaining arrears.
