Nigeria Is Still Borrowing Despite High Debt Costs – IMF

Nigeria is still borrowing despite challenges posed by high borrowing costs, the International Monetary Fund has said.

The IMF’s Financial Counsellor and Director of Monetary and Capital Markets, Tobias Adrian recently revealed this during a press conference, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, Nigeria and other frontier markets have maintained significant activity in the debt market throughout 2024, even though financing costs have surged compared to pre-2021 levels.

He added that access to financing is currently more expensive than before, but countries are still indulging.

His words, “Frontier markets, including Nigeria, have been active in the debt market this year, and though access to financing is still more expensive than before, the overall issuance levels have been encouraging.”

IMF’s Research Department, Jean-Marc Natal added, “We revised growth for Nigeria 2024 by 0.2 per cent down. Things are volatile because the reason for the revision is precisely issues in agriculture related to flooding and issues in the production of oil, related to security and maintenance that have pushed down the production of oil. So, these two factors have played a role.”

WOW.