The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a $516 million external loan request by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to finance sections of the Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway project.
The approval followed the presentation of a report by the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management, Abdullahi Rasheed, during plenary in Abuja.
President Tinubu, in a letter dated April 23, had sought the National Assembly’s approval to secure a $516,333,007 syndicated loan from Deutsche Bank AG for the project. Lawmakers endorsed the request after considering the committee’s recommendations.
The Senate had earlier taken up the request, with Senate President Godswill Akpabio defending the borrowing plan. He argued that loans tied to infrastructure development could enhance economic growth and improve repayment capacity.
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“It is better to borrow for projects and infrastructure so that, at the end of the day, we can repay through the infrastructure,” he said.
The facility is expected to fund Sections 1, 1A and 1B of the highway, covering about 120 kilometres in the first phase. The full project spans roughly 1,000 kilometres, linking Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos states, and connecting Illela to Badagry to ease movement along key economic corridors.
According to the President, the financing will be arranged by Deutsche Bank and supported by a partial risk guarantee from the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit.
The loan has a nine-year tenure, including a three-year grace period, with an interest rate pegged to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus 5.3 per cent per annum.
In addition, the Federal Government is expected to provide over N265 billion in counterpart funding for land acquisition, compensation and related infrastructure costs.
However, the borrowing plan has drawn mixed reactions. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, through his aide Phrank Shaibu, questioned the government’s fiscal discipline, while policy analyst Seun Onigbinde warned about the risks associated with poorly structured loans.
Nigeria’s growing debt profile has also continued to attract scrutiny. Data from the Debt Management Office shows total debt service rose to about N16 trillion in 2025, up from N13.02 trillion in 2024, representing a 22.9 per cent increase.
A breakdown indicates that Federal Government bonds accounted for about N5.35 trillion—around 65 per cent of total domestic interest payments. On the external side, debt servicing stood at $5.15 billion in 2025, representing 46.2 per cent of total obligations, underscoring rising pressure from foreign debt commitments.
