•Data reveals steady repayment of Rapid Financing Instrument loan, culminating in removal from debtor list.
By Anastasia John E.
In a report, titled, “Total IMF Credit Outstanding movement from May 01, 2025 to May 06, 2025,” obtained on the multilateral institution’s website on Wednesday, Nigeria was not listed among the debtors, which had 91 developing and least developed countries owing the fund a total of $117,797,656,224 as at May 6, 2025.
Total IMF credit outstanding refers to the total amount of unpaid and outstanding principal due to the fund from its member countries. This includes both outstanding loans under current arrangements and those that have expired.
When contacted on the development on Wednesday, a top IMF official in Washington DC, who pleaded to remain anonymous, told THISDAY, “We are trying to confirm the reports. Nigeria borrowed during the pandemic. It was a rapid finance loan, and we are trying to confirm whether it has now been fully repaid.”
However, StatiSense, a data company, which also confirmed on its X handle on Wednesday that Nigeria was no longer listed on the list of countries indebted to IMF, revealed that as at July 28, 2023, Nigeria owed the fund $1.61 billion.
StatiSense said the debt was reduced to $1.37 billion as at January 5, 2024; $933.03 million as at July 10, 2024; $472.06 million as at January 8, 2025, before it was finally settled this month.
It was learnt that the value was converted from Special Drawing Rights (SDR), an international reserve asset created by the IMF to supplement the official reserves of its member countries, to US dollars.
