President Bola Tinubu has requested the National Assembly’s approval to borrow ₦1.15 trillion from the domestic debt market to finance the deficit in the 2025 budget.

The request was contained in a letter addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio and read during Tuesday’s plenary session.

Tinubu explained that the proposed borrowing is aimed at bridging the funding gap and ensuring the full implementation of government programmes and projects captured in the 2025 fiscal plan.

After reading the letter, Akpabio referred the request to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt for further legislative scrutiny, directing the committee to report back within one week.

This fresh borrowing request comes just a week after the Senate approved $2.847 billion in new foreign financing to support the same budget and refinance Nigeria’s maturing Eurobonds. That earlier approval included $2.347 billion external borrowing from the international capital market to partly finance the 2025 deficit and a $500 million debut Sovereign Sukuk to fund key infrastructure projects.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Senator Adetokunbo Abiru (APC, Lagos East), clarified that the new borrowing would not increase Nigeria’s debt profile, noting that it had already been included in the 2025 Appropriation Act as part of the approved deficit financing.

“This is more of a compliance issue because the 2025 budget already provides for this borrowing,” Abiru stated. “There’s nothing wrong with borrowing if it is properly structured and used to tackle critical issues like unemployment and infrastructural decay.”