Nigeria’s Senate Approves 2025-2026 External Borrowing Plan Of $21.5bn, N757bn Pension Bond Arrears

Tuesday July 22, 2025
By TheNewsDESK |

The Nigeria’s Senate has approved the 2025-2026 external borrowing plan of $21.5 billion presented by President Bola Tinubu for consideration.

Also approved was a loan request of 15 billion Japanese Yen and 65 million Euros grant.

The Senate also approved the issuance of Federal Government Bond of N757 billion for payment of accrued rights pension arrears as at December 2023 for the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The Upper Chamber also approved President Tinubu’s request for capital raising of up to $2 billion through a foreign-currency-denominated instrument in the domestic market.

The approval yesterday was sequel to the presentation and consideration of the report of the Committee on Local and Foreign Debt by Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Aliyu Wamakko, APC, Sokoto North.

Recall that the loan request, according to President Bola Tinubu, was designed to fund various critical national development projects across key sectors of the economy.

In his presentation, Senator Wamakko who noted that the loan request was part of the already approved Medium Term Expenditure FrameWork (MTEF)and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for the 2025 budget, said that the MTEF and FSP contained most of the items in the borrowing plans, adding that based on the findings, the committee recommended that the Senate do approve the President’s request.

On his part, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Solomon Adeola, APC-Ogun West, who seconded the motion for approval, said that the approval was largely a formality, as most of the items had already been outlined in the MTEF and 2025 budget previously passed by the National Assembly.

Adeola said, “The borrowing is already embedded in the 2025 Appropriation Act. With this approval, we now have all revenue sources, including loans, in place to fully fund the budget,” Adeola said.