Future generations will inherit debts without development, experts warn

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Experts at a national debt dialogue in Abuja on Tuesday warned that Nigeria is accumulating liabilities that future generations will inherit without seeing the development that borrowing is supposed to bring.

“At the end of the day, all of these debts, our children will have to inherit them,” the Programme Manager of the Sustainable Nigeria Programme at Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Mr Ikenna Ofoegbu, told participants.

The National Stakeholder Convening on Debt Sustainability and Climate Finance was hosted by the Centre for Inclusive Social Development with support from Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.

Ofoegbu said decisions taken today were shaping the future of young Nigerians. “My children will have to contend with whatever that child becomes. And it would be in their interest that that child becomes responsible,” he said.

He said debt figures that appear in the news as abstract numbers have real implications. “As of this morning, when I checked, Nigeria’s debt profile is about N152.4bn. In the US dollar, that’s about $99.66bn,” he said.

He said the question citizens should ask was not only how much was being borrowed, but what was being achieved.

“We started asking ourselves, what is the true cost of debt? When we borrow money, what exactly are we paying back?” he asked.

Ofoegbu linked the debt issue to climate disasters. “Those floods affected more than 33 states in Nigeria. Road infrastructures were gone. Farmlands were gone. Food was gone. And the cost of that particular flood was about $9.12bn. “Climate change has a way of destroying infrastructures. And at the end of the day, who pays? The future generation,” he said

He also warned about the high cost of borrowing in the economy.

According to him, revenue is being swallowed by debt payments.

“Our debt servicing is about 60 per cent to 70 per cent. It has come down from about 80 per cent to 90 per cent. So now we’re about 60 per cent to 70 per cent,” he said.

He criticised the lack of transparency, saying, “Unfortunately, we’re not dealing with the kind of leaders that we can trust, whatever they say or their intentions. We cannot trust the system. We cannot trust our politicians,” he said. “I don’t know the last time we saw all these reports publicly.”

Ofoegbu added that capital spending was unclear.

“Many of us may not know, but there’s no capital budget to begin with. I think the only person that seems to be working in my own eye view is Wike,” he said.

He urged citizens to take responsibility.

“Nobody is coming to save Nigeria except us. This is where we belong. This is our home. And we’re going to fix Nigeria by repair or whatever means,” he said.

In his welcome address, the Executive Director of CISD, Mr Folahan Johnson, said the human impact of debt should not be ignored.

“The true cost of debts is the out-of-school child, the out-of-school girl. The true cost of debts is that the woman who has to do business loses her life because of lack of access to basic maternal health care,” ” he said.

Johnson said those present represented the group that could influence change.

“We are here today because we are the new elite. Everybody in this room is the hope that the vulnerable Nigerian has,” he said.

He recalled seeing a boy begging and asked, “What does the future hold for this little boy? Does he even know the consequences of the decisions that are being made today?”

BudgIT’s Acting Country Director, Mr Joseph Amenaghawon, said borrowing was not translating into development.

“The result is debt without development. The cycle where the burden grows but the benefits do not,” he said.

He argued that loans were being used for recurrent spending rather than transformative projects.

“Borrowing should build infrastructures at rising rates, systems of high use, climate resilient communities, and a diversified and productive economy,” he said.

He warned that young people were being left behind.

“A generation borrowed but not invested in. For every loan that remains unaccounted for, a potential generation of youth is left behind,” he told participants.

He cited the 1980s Lagos Metro Line as an example of how debt failed to deliver.

“My question would then be to myself, did I eventually become part of those who paid that debt by actually being a resident of Lagos State? And my parents also paid taxes,” he said.

Amenaghawon said the issue was deeper than debt alone.

“What we face today is not simply a debt problem but a structural development crisis. A crisis of priorities, a crisis of governance, a crisis of vision,” he said.

He said borrowing could be useful if properly managed.

“Debt is not in itself a sin. Borrowing can and should be a tool for transformation,” he said.

“Borrowing can become a boiling point for future generations while the coming benefits remain elusive.”

He urged strict monitoring of projects.

“Each loan must be traceable, each project verifiable, each outcome measurable, and accessible to the community,” he said.

He closed by calling for reform. “We can make debt a bridge to Nigeria’s future, not a burden. It is time for transparency, accountability, ambition and justice,” he said.

In October 2025, The PUNCH reported that Nigeria’s total public debt stock rose to N152.40 trillion as of June 30, 2025, according to figures released by the Debt Management Office.

The figure represents a N3.01tn increase from N149.39tn recorded at the end of March 2025, marking a 2.01 per cent rise within three months. In dollar terms, the debt profile grew from $97.24bn to $99.66bn, reflecting a 2.49 per cent increase.

The data showed the government’s growing reliance on both domestic and external borrowing to plug fiscal deficits, even as revenue reforms and foreign exchange liberalisation continue to reshape the macroeconomic landscape.

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