Nigeria’s federal government paid ₦7.7 trillion in interest in the first half of 2026 after collecting ₦6.2 trillion in revenue.
That is the World Bank’s accounting, published this month in its Nigeria Development Update, and it puts interest at 124.19% of federal revenue. A year earlier, interest took 2.5% of GDP; now it takes 3.1%. On Sunday, the Federal Ministry of Finance called the ratio misleading.
The ministry raised three objections. The interest total includes debt the federal government services for other tiers of government, such as external loans to states. The revenue total leaves out earnings that agencies and enterprises have not yet sent to the Treasury. And revenue usually rises in the second half of the year, the ministry said, so six months is a poor test.
The ministry offered its own figures: revenue grew 72% from ₦3.6 trillion to ₦6.2 trillion, interest grew 38% to ₦7.7 trillion from ₦5.6 trillion, as the ratio fell from 156%.
By either count, though, interest still outran revenue. The gap narrowed to ₦1.5 trillion from ₦2 trillion, meaning the federal government is borrowing to cover the interest on what it already owes.
The ministry also pointed to full-year measures. Debt service, interest and principal together, was below 60% of revenue in 2025, it said, down from 97% before the current reforms. The World Bank projects 46% for 2026. Those are full-year numbers set against a half-year result, which explains some of the distance between them.
The Debt Management Office says the debt itself stood at ₦166.8 trillion at the end of June. The federal government owes ₦152.7 trillion, or 92%, while the 36 states and the capital territory owe ₦14.1 trillion of it.
The World Bank said federal spending rose 10.3% to ₦16.1 trillion in the half. Interest and personnel took about 74% of it. Capital spending was ₦700 billion.
BusinessDay noted that the 2026 budget sets aside ₦3.52 trillion for education and ₦2.48 trillion for health, ₦6 trillion together, which is ₦1.7 trillion less than six months of interest. The comparison sets a full-year budget against half a year of payments, so it shows scale more than a like-for-like.
Checking either side is hard. Nigeria has not published a budget implementation report since the third quarter of 2025, though the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 requires one within 30 days of each quarter. CFG Advisory said first-half revenue ran 64.4% below its straight-line budget projection and called for an audit of compliance. The International Monetary Fund warned on 14 October that rising interest bills leave less room for investment and social spending. The full-year numbers, and the missing reports, will show which reading holds.
