Nigeria’s Rising Debt Weakens Investor Confidence, Says Afe Babalola | KREENO Consortium Reacts
KREENO Consortium’s Dr. Ohio O. Ojeagbase emphasizes the need for leadership integrity, fiscal reform, and responsible governance to restore national credibility.
By Kiina Martins, Business Correspondent
Eminent legal scholar and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, has expressed deep concern over Nigeria’s growing debt liabilities, warning that the nation’s mounting borrowings are eroding investor confidence and diminishing its economic credibility on the global stage.
Speaking at the 2025 International Leadership Conference on Leadership, Governance, Sustainable Change, and Wealth Creation (2.0), jointly organized by ABUAD, Trinity Western University (TWU), Vancouver, Canada, and the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy, and Development (CentreLSD), the elder statesman described Nigeria’s fiscal condition as “alarming and unsustainable.”
Delivering his remarks on the conference theme, “Shaping Transformational Leaders for a Changing World: Tackling Insecurity, Governance, and Development,” Babalola noted that Nigeria’s total public debt, now estimated at over ₦152.4 trillion (approximately $99.7 billion), has placed the country among the world’s heavily indebted nations. He warned that such economic instability has made foreign investors increasingly reluctant to engage with Nigeria’s financial markets.
“Our banks are complaining that the Central Bank of Nigeria can no longer honour government promissory notes,” Babalola said. “This is not just a financial issue but a signal of deeper governance problems linked to the government’s inability to manage its debt obligations effectively.”
He urged the Federal Government to implement comprehensive fiscal and structural reforms that prioritize prudent borrowing, fiscal transparency, and a sustainable debt management framework. Babalola reminded policymakers that under Section 14 of the Nigerian Constitution, the security and welfare of citizens must remain the primary purpose of government.
In his keynote lecture, “Transformational Leadership in an Insecure and Disruptive Era: Building Ethical, Resilient and Impactful Leaders for Africa,” Dr. Otive Igbuzor, Executive Director of CentreLSD, underscored transformational leadership as a necessary tool for tackling systemic corruption, unemployment, gender inequality, and weak institutional governance across Africa.
According to him, Africa’s political and corporate leaders must embrace merit-based systems, institutional integrity, and innovation-driven governance. He further called for leadership education to be embedded into Nigeria’s school curricula to build a generation of ethically grounded and visionary leaders.
Also speaking, Professor Smaranda Olarinde, Vice-Chancellor of ABUAD, described the conference as timely, emphasizing that effective leadership in Africa depends on international collaboration, regional partnerships, and private sector engagement to address insecurity, poverty, and economic decline.
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KREENO Consortium’s Position
In his response to the conference discussions, Dr. Ohio O. Ojeagbase, Founder of KREENO Consortium, stated that Nigeria’s debt problem is not merely economic but a crisis of leadership ethics and financial integrity. He explained that nations that fail to embed accountability and transparency into their debt management processes risk long-term investor apathy and systemic instability.
Dr Ohio Ol Ojeagbase went further to review this public debt and said “Nigeria’s total public debt as of June 30, 2025 is estimated at ₦152.40 trillion (approximately $99.68 billion USD), according to the Debt Management Office (DMO) and corroborated by several credible financial news sources. This represents the highest ever recorded in naira terms and shows a consistent increase from previous quarters.
- The debt stock is split between domestic debts (₦80.55 trillion, or 52.9% of total) and external debts (₦71.85 trillion, or 47.1% of total).
- Federal government accounts for around 92.6% of the total, with ₦64.49 trillion in external obligations and ₦76.59 trillion in domestic liabilities.
- State governments and the FCT owe about ₦11.32 trillion, comprising both domestic and external debts.
- The increase reflects both new borrowings to meet fiscal deficits and the exchange rate effect on foreign-denominated debts.
- The public debt-to-GDP ratio has been projected to remain below 40%, supported by steady growth and tighter fiscal management.”
Dr. Ojeagbase reaffirmed that KREENO Consortium, through its integrated operations in debt recovery, corporate governance, and investigative intelligence, is strategically positioned to support Nigeria’s transition toward financial discipline, business integrity, and sustainable economic transformation.
According to him, “Restoring investor confidence begins with restoring integrity to financial contracts, public borrowing, and institutional accountability. Only then can the Nigerian economy regain credibility and attract meaningful foreign investment.”
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Ihe jasperSadly sir, Baba Are Babalola has lived through different generations and actively too in the Nigerian system to know what he is saying. Not forgetting his pedigree. There's a reason for power acquisition, you don't acquire power for title sake, power is acquired for responsibility but here, we acquire power for Bragging right and that's very immature. These men are daily running this country aground except we want to pretend. It appears they share the proceeds from our resources, IGR , recovered foreign loot and borrowed finds among themselves and nothing more. A few steps into the street,openings your eyes to the reality on ground. Nigerians are crying in pain, take home pay no longer gets anyone home, hospitals are filled with people who can barely feed, much less pay for tests,drugs or surgeries. The biggest problem, isn't with the ruling class/,oppressors but with the oppressed who have become their praise singers and foot soldiers and that's one major problem, poverty when used as a weapon can create. This class of people are growing in numbers on a daily basis. Poverty has been weaponized and gradually, Nigeria is being turned into a One-party state which would eventually make it a police state.if opposition is wiped out, the country is as good as dead because all would be geared towards serving the emperor and his cronies. Emperors are merciless people. With external,and internal borrowing, it simply means we don't have anything in our economic reserve and governance is done on credit. The politicians from the presidency to the judiciary at all levels are busy gallivanting, living large not minding of the masses die of hunger. Mali and co, have drifted from democracy, Madagascar has been on that route for about a week now and this is being field by the Genz and you and I know that once Nigerians take up anything, it goes overboard. Finally, our poliyicians, especially the presidency is living in denial and claiming oblivious of this glaring reality , playing ethnic politics and whenever there's is a pocket of crisis anywhere they term it the handiwork of a particular tribe and the fire is burning under the Agbada gradually. The only thing they know is how to spend and so some of us do not expect a Cambridge performance from them, it's like expecting the devil to give one salvation. They were incapable and they were never prepared as their aim was only to come in and be in control the national "cake" I am indeed pained as a Nigerian and fear for the generations behind.
