According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), the Federal Government spent N3.14 trillion on domestic debt servicing in the first quarter (Q1) of 2026.
The official figures were disclosed in the DMO’s latest domestic debt service report for Q1 2026.
A breakdown of the expenditure indicates that N169.68 billion went toward principal repayments, while N2.97 trillion was allocated to interest payments.
The debt management agency further revealed that monthly domestic debt servicing costs stood at N741.82 billion for January and rose to N967.67 billion in February.
Debt servicing costs climbed to N1.43 trillion in March, bringing the total quarterly expenditure to N3.14 trillion.
The March figure reflects a 92.7% increase compared to January’s N741.82 billion and a 47.7% rise from February’s N967.67 billion.
The debt agency noted that interest costs comprised nearly 94.6% of the overall domestic debt service for the quarter.
According to the DMO, Treasury bill interest accounted for the largest share at N1 trillion, while FGN bond interest totaled N1.96 trillion.
The agency added that N4.24 billion was paid in interest on FGN savings bonds over the same period.
According to the DMO, N169.68 billion in repayments on promissory notes denominated in local currency made up the majority of the debt service.
The government’s domestic debt service increased significantly overall throughout the quarter, with over half of the N3.14 trillion spent between January and March coming from March.
In the first quarter of 2026, Nigeria’s public debt rose by 0.01 percent to N159.35 trillion.
Nigeria would pay $11.6 billion on debt servicing in 2026, according to President Bola Tinubu’s announcement on May 13.
Backstory…
The latest figure comes as Nigeria continues to grapple with the rising cost of servicing its domestic debt, even as the Federal Government relies heavily on borrowing to finance its budget and meet other obligations.
In recent years, debt servicing has taken up an increasingly significant portion of government revenue, prompting repeated concerns from economists and financial experts about the country’s growing debt burden and the pressure it places on public finances.
Meanwhile, this comes as the Federal Government has exceeded its 2024 borrowing target by N4.79 trillion because a larger-than-expected budget deficit forced officials to secure far more funding than planned, according to the Federation’s Budget Office.
The latest Fourth Quarter and Consolidated Budget Implementation Report for 2024 reveals that the Federal Government increased new borrowings to N12.62 trillion, surpassing the projected N7.83 trillion by N4.79 trillion, or 61.2 percent.
The increased borrowing requirement followed a significant revenue shortfall, pushing the fiscal imbalance to N13.51 trillion, well beyond the approved deficit of N9.18 trillion.
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