President Bola Tinubu has mounted a defense of his government’s new external borrowing plans, arguing that loans directed toward highways, ports, power and human capital are investments intended to expand productivity rather than finance consumption.
The President’s response comes as opposition leaders press lawmakers to scrutinize a proposed borrowing package of about $21.7 billion.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga , President Tinubu sought to recast the debate over public debt.
He said “The real question is not how much we borrow, but what we build, what value we create and what future we leave behind,” he wrote.
The President identified the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, the Trans-Sahara Superhighway, electricity-grid upgrades and the modernization of Lagos’s commercial ports as projects designed to strengthen Nigeria’s productive capacity.
He said investments in health care, education and vocational training would complement the physical infrastructure.
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is projected to reduce logistics costs along its corridor by 15% to 20% and add as much as two percentage points to gross domestic product through trade, tourism and industrial activity.
NewsQuest reports that the administration estimates it could generate roughly 100,000 direct construction and engineering jobs, plus more than 150,000 indirect jobs in logistics, materials and related services.
“We are not simply building highways,” Tinubu said.
“We are opening economic corridors, connecting markets, unlocking industries and reshaping Nigeria’s economic geography.”
Tinubu tied the borrowing strategy to his administration’s goal of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030, saying Nigeria cannot reach that scale with infrastructure designed for a much smaller economy.
He argued that sustained investment is necessary to lift productivity, industrialization and trade.
According to him, about $10.6 billion of the proposed external borrowing plan is earmarked for transport links, including the Sokoto-Badagry and Lagos-Calabar highways and the Kano-Kaduna metro rail. Officials describe the request as a multiyear investment plan rather than an immediate drawdown.
The President cited improving macroeconomic indicators as evidence that difficult reforms—including the removal of petrol subsidies, exchange-rate unification and tax changes—have begun to restore stability and investor confidence.
Real GDP expanded 4.43% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, while headline inflation fell to 14.63% in September from 20.98% a year earlier.
Gross external reserves stood at $55.1 billion as of Oct. 9, including about $46 billion in net reserves, according to figures cited by the president.
Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio rose to 12.5% from 7%, he said.
The World Bank separately reported that Nigeria’s economy grew 4.2% in the first half of 2026, up from 3.9% a year earlier, while gross external reserves rose from $45.5 billion at the end of 2025 to $53.8 billion by August.
The borrowing plans have drawn sharp criticism from opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who has urged the National Assembly to reject the request and demand project-level details.
Critics warn that additional external debt could burden future generations and question whether funds will be transparently allocated.
President Tinubu countered that improved credit assessments, stronger reserves and better macroeconomic management should lower Nigeria’s risk premium and borrowing costs.
“Confidence has a price; our cost of borrowing is going down, and the country risk premium has drastically decreased,” the statement said.
The President said the government would prioritize food affordability and energy-price stability, fiscal discipline, completion of high-impact projects, regulatory efficiency and targeted household support.
He also said Nigeria would seek longer-term financing to match the useful life of infrastructure assets and reduce refinancing risk.
“Securing financing is not the achievement,” he added.
