In just 16 months, the Nigerian government, under President Bola Tinubu, has obtained $6.45 billion in loans from the World Bank.

Following the recent acceptance of three fresh loans totalling $1.57 billion from the World Bank for various projects in Nigeria, the amount grew to the new figure and is anticipated to rise much higher in the upcoming months.

In just five years, the international organisation had granted the government 36 loan requests totalling a whopping $24.088 billion. These appravals, which are intended to fund different development projects across the nation, coincide with growing apprehensions regarding the nation’s rising debt load, raising concerns about the viability of these financial commitments and their possible long-term impacts on the economy.

Under Tinubu, some of the projects include loans for power ($750 million), resource mobilisation reforms ($750 million), women’s empowerment ($500 million), girls’ education ($700 million), renewable energy ($750 million), and economic stabilisation reforms ($1.5 billion).

Long years of deteriorating infrastructure and rising unemployment have made many Nigerians feel more resentful of the government’s plan to borrow money. Even while a few of them acknowledge that there aren’t enough resources given the large population, they don’t think the previous borrowing was necessary.

On Tuesday, an examination of records retrieved from the foreign lender website revealed that, since 2020, the foreign lender has continued to provide the country an annual credit approval.

A quick glance revealed that in 2020, the lender granted 15 loan requests totalling $6.36 billion. These initiatives include, among others, the $510 million Nigeria Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project, the $430 million Nigeria Digital Identification for Development project, and the $750 million Nigeria SATAN extra financing for COVID-19 response.

While the country, during the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari, received loans for $1.26 billion in 2022 for six projects, the loan demands were cut to six projects worth $3.2 billion in 2021.

For example, on March 18, 2022, a $500 million loan request for a project supporting cattle productivity and resilience was accepted. In the same year, a second $750 million loan was authorised under the Nigeria: State Action on Business Enabling Reforms Program. Additionally, $3.9 million was obtained to fund women’s projects in Nigeria through the Umbrella organisation.

Nigeria’s debt servicing reached N6.04 trillion in the first half of 2024, according to the most recent data released by the Central Bank of Nigeria earlier this week. This represents a notable rise of 68.8% over the N3.58 trillion recorded during the same time in 2023.

This implies that during the assessment period, the Nigerian government’s debt servicing costs were around three times more than its personnel costs.

The Senate will now be able to consider the impeachment petition of Kenya’s deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, who is accused of inciting ethnic hate and profiting himself following a vote by the parliament on Tuesday.

“According to the results … of the motion that I’ve just declared, a total of 281 members being more than two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly have voted in support of the motion,” Moses Wetang’ula said.

Gachagua, who has refuted all of the allegations, supported President William Ruto in his bid to win the 2022 election and assisted in obtaining a substantial portion of the vote from the popular central Kenya region.

However, he has mentioned being sidelined in recent months, and there have been numerous rumours in the local media claiming that he and Ruto had fallen out as a result of shifting political allegiances.

Following countrywide demonstrations over unpopular tax increases in June and July that resulted in the deaths of over fifty people, Ruto fired the majority of his cabinet and appointed members of the main opposition.

Gachagua asked lawmakers to “search your conscience” before casting a ballot on Tuesday night.

“If you search your conscience and listen to the issues that have been raised and you find that there are no grounds to impeach the deputy president of Kenya, please make the right decision.”

Parliamentarians voted 281 times in favour of impeaching him, 44 against, and 1 abstention. The majority leader of the legislature, Kimani Ichung’wah, declared that the 59-year-old lawmaker had “violated not one, but eight provisions of our constitution.”

He described Rigathi as “a great danger to our nationhood, a great danger to the unity of our republic” and led lawmakers in a chant during the proceedings that said, “Rigathi must go.”

Declaring his innocence, Gachagua provided a thorough refutation of the accusations, which included encouraging “ethnic balkanization” and accumulating a vast portfolio of mysterious properties.

“I will fight to the end,” he told a press conference on the eve of the impeachment proceedings.