Tinubu seeks $20.5bn loans as Senate gives panel one week

President Bola Tinubu asked the National Assembly on Tuesday to approve $20.52 billion and €1.05 billion in external loans, and the Senate gave its debt committee one week to report.

The supplementary plan covers the 2026 to 2027 fiscal period and totals $20,517,755,901 and €1,045,083,643, according to the letter addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio. As presented to the Senate, it gave no detailed breakdown of the facilities, their financing terms or the amount earmarked for each sector.

"These funds will primarily be directed towards critical infrastructure projects in various sectors, including power, transportation and healthcare," Tinubu wrote.

He also named agriculture, education, water supply, security, employment generation and financial management reforms as targets. Most projects would run across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, and all were chosen after technical and economic evaluation, he said.

Tinubu urged urgent consideration, arguing that the scale of Nigeria's infrastructure deficit made additional external borrowing necessary. "This will enable the government to fulfil its obligations to the Nigerian people through timely disbursements and effective project implementation," he said.

Akpabio said the plan had featured in the Federal Government's approved borrowing framework, then referred it to the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, working with the Committees on Appropriations and Finance. The panel must report at plenary within one week.

"The borrowing plan is attached, but of course, this was even earlier approved in our budget, and also the external borrowing plan was approved as far back as 2025 to 2027," he said.

A separate letter from Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume, read at the House plenary in Abuja, asks lawmakers to approve a Promissory Note Programme. Dated 18 August 2026 and received by the Speaker's office on 21 October, it put verified liabilities at ₦269,446,402,822.56 after a review by ministries, departments and agencies.

Akume described the programme as "a structured, transparent and fiscally responsible framework" that admits only validated claims. He said it would curb accumulating interest and penalties, relieve creditors and spread repayments, and noted that the government had used it before to settle inherited local debts.

The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO), which backs Allied People's Movement candidate Seyi Makinde, demanded on Wednesday that Tinubu withdraw the loan request. In a statement dated 28 October 2026 and signed by its Director of Strategic Communications, Richard Nnanna Ihediwa, it urged the National Assembly to reject the plan, questioned the timing ahead of the 2027 general election and put the dollar and euro sums at ₦27.52 trillion and ₦1.558 trillion respectively.

"This malignant debt cancer and insatiable appetite for foreign loans have reached alarming proportions that every well-meaning Nigerian should fear for the nation's future as Tinubu's government relentlessly accumulates domestic and external debts with neither commensurate development, transparent utilisation nor a credible repayment plan," the campaign office said.

The organisation cited public debt of ₦166.7 trillion and listed earlier loans, including $750 million from the World Bank in June 2023, $800 million for conditional cash transfers a month later and $2.25 billion in June 2024. It also said $3 billion approved in 2025 for the Eastern Railway Corridor linking Port Harcourt to Maiduguri had yet to show tangible progress.

Ihediwa warned that Tinubu risked leaving a legacy of "debt and enslavement" rather than productive investment, and likened Nigeria's course to Egypt under Khedive Isma'il, who ruled from 1863 to 1879.

Calling on lawmakers to act in the national interest, the organisation declared "Nigeria is nobody's personal fiefdom!"

The Federal Government has defended its borrowing, saying the funds support critical infrastructure and other development priorities.

Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele rejected claims in July that the administration had borrowed about ₦80 trillion in three years, saying the rise in reported debt reflected naira depreciation and the recognition of existing obligations.

Peter Obi, the Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, warned in April that Nigeria was heading towards a debt crisis. The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, questioned why borrowing continued after fuel subsidy payments ended.

Planned borrowing for 2026 rose by ₦11.31 trillion to ₦29.20 trillion in April, against a projected deficit of ₦31.46 trillion and debt-servicing costs of ₦15.81 trillion, according to earlier reporting. The National Assembly approved a $2.347 billion external request in October 2025 to part-fund the 2025 deficit and refinance maturing Eurobonds.

Tinubu was due to leave Abuja on Thursday for Makkah to perform Umrah, according to a statement from presidential adviser Bayo Onanuga.

The debt committee's report is due at plenary within one week, and the Presidency had not directly answered the campaign's claims in the reports reviewed.