The Federal Government of Nigeria has borrowed a total of $4.95 billion in loans from the World Bank over the past 12 months, pushing the total public debt to approximately N101 trillion. This development has raised concerns about the increasing costs of servicing external debt.

As of December 2023, the nation's public debt stood at N97 trillion, according to the Debt Management Office data. The government is still expecting fresh loan approval worth $4.4 billion from the World Bank and the African Development Bank over the next year.

The World Bank approved funding for six projects, including $750 million for power sector financing, $500 million for women empowerment, $700 million for girl child education, $750 million for renewable energy solutions, $750 million for resource mobilization reforms, and $1.5 billion for economic stabilization reforms.

The World Bank approved a loan of $750 million to boost Nigeria's power sector on June 9, 2023, and another loan of $500 million on June 27, 2023, to help drive women's empowerment. In September 2023, the bank approved a loan of $700 million to bolster educational opportunities and empowerment for adolescent girls in Nigeria.

The latest loan approval was for $2.25 billion, comprising $1.5 billion for reforms on Economic Stabilization to Enable Transformation Development Policy Financing Programme.

This loan aims to increase fiscal oil revenues to 2.7% by 2025, boost non-oil fiscal revenues, expand social safety nets to assist 67 million vulnerable Nigerians, and raise the import value of previously banned products.