Nigeria secures extra $65m World Bank loan, debt rises to $18.23bn
BY MOTOLANI OSENI
Nigeria has secured an additional $65 million credit from the World Bank for its Sustainable Procurement, Environmental, and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) project, raising the total loan to $145 million.
The approval was granted on June 24, 2025—six days ahead of the previously scheduled date—and the project has now advanced to “Bank Approved” status.
The new funding will be used to scale up the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) platform and expand the training and certification of procurement professionals across Nigeria’s public and private sectors. More than 33,000 individuals have already been trained under the initial phase of the project, with another 25,000 targeted for the new phase.
Initially launched in 2021 and backed by an $80 million loan approved in 2020, the SPESSE project is designed to build institutional capacity for managing procurement, environmental, and social standards. While the original credit will close by June 2026, the new financing will remain active until June 2029.
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This latest loan adds to Nigeria’s rising external debt profile, bringing total obligations to the World Bank to $18.23 billion as of March 2025—up from $17.81 billion in December 2024. The increase reflects Nigeria’s ongoing dependence on concessional financing to support public sector reforms amid limited fiscal space. World Bank loans now account for 39.6 per cent of Nigeria’s total external debt stock of $45.98 billion, compared to 38.9 per cent at the end of 2024 and 36.4 per cent in March 2024.
While the SPESSE initiative remains a cornerstone of Nigeria’s reform agenda, the mounting debt burden underscores the importance of delivering measurable results and sustainable value from these development programmes.
