Ogunsanwo Faults Nigeria’s N149.39 Trillion Debt, Demands Accountability for Borrowed Funds

|By Adejumo Adekunle-

Renowned data analyst, Babajide Ogunsanwo, has raised critical concerns over Nigeria’s ballooning debt, questioning the absence of tangible or intangible returns on the N149.39 trillion national debt recorded in the first quarter of 2025.

Ogunsanwo, speaking during a Sunday appearance on Channels Television, lamented that the country’s major fiscal problem is not just the cost of debt, but the lack of measurable outcomes from the borrowed funds.

“Nothing really weakens the government as much as the poor use of debt,” Ogunsanwo stated.
“Over the years, we’ve been talking about the cost of debt. The conversation we should be having now is: what exactly are the returns on this debt?”

He argued that the Debt Management Office (DMO) and Nigerians at large must shift attention from just servicing loans to evaluating the impact and results of the loans — whether in infrastructure, education, healthcare, or other development indicators.

Ogunsanwo particularly pointed to domestic borrowing as the biggest source of concern, noting that under President Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s internal debt profile surged by N50 trillion in just two years.

“The real headache is domestic borrowing,” he said.
“The Federal Government under Tinubu has acquired N50 trillion in two years. We must begin to interrogate what we’ve achieved with this debt.”

According to recent data from the Debt Management Office, Nigeria’s total public debt hit N149.39 trillion in Q1 2025 — reflecting a quarter-on-quarter increase of N4.72 trillion or 3.3% from the N144.67 trillion recorded at the end of December 2024.

A breakdown of the debt structure reveals that:

• Domestic debt skyrocketed by 203%, rising from N23.7 trillion in Q1 2023 to N74.8 trillion in Q1 2025.

• External debt also increased by 11%, climbing from $37 billion in Q1 2023 to $41 billion in Q1 2025.

Ogunsanwo emphasized that while borrowing is not inherently bad, failure to channel loans into productivity and economic growth will continue to strain Nigeria’s fiscal health and burden future generations.