Nigeria spent $954.06 million servicing its external debt obligations in the first quarter of 2026, representing a 31.5 per cent decline from the $1.39 billion recorded in the same period of 2025.

The was disclosed in the latest figures released by the Debt Management Office.

The Q1 2026 debt service payment comprised $308.33 million in principal repayments, $623.22 million in interest payments and $22.50 million in other charges.

The decline was largely attributed to a lower principal repayment burden, as Nigeria paid $759.58 million in principal in Q1 2025, compared with $308.33 million in the first quarter of 2026.

The DMO’s figures showed that external debt service payments fell substantially year-on-year, although interest remained the largest component of the Federal Government’s obligations in Q1 2026.

However, other charges, excluding interest payments, rose sharply from $3.18 million in Q1 2025 to $22.50 million in the first quarter of 2026, according to the agency.

Commercial creditors accounted for the largest share of Nigeria’s external debt service payments in Q1 2026 at $501.84 million, followed by multilateral creditors with $271.90 million and bilateral creditors with $180.32 million.

Commercial debt service was largely driven by interest payments, which stood at $476.86 million. Of this amount, $427.72 million was paid on Eurobond obligations.

First Abu Dhabi Bank received $47.72 million in interest payments and $20.56 million in other charges, bringing total payments to the bank to $68.28 million during the quarter.

Meanwhile, payments to multilateral creditors totalled $271.90 million, comprising $176.34 million in principal repayments, $95.53 million in interest and $30,107.78 in other charges.

The International Development Association accounted for $243.42 million of the multilateral debt service payments, comprising $156.94 million in principal repayments and $86.47 million in interest.

Bilateral creditors received $180.32 million, with the Export-Import Bank of China accounting for $174.84 million of the total.

The Q1 2026 figure also represented a significant decline from the $1.80 billion spent on external debt servicing in Q4 2025.

This translated to a 47.0 per cent quarter-on-quarter reduction, largely due to the absence of the $1.12 billion Eurobond principal repayment recorded in the preceding quarter.