Nigeria clears $3.4bn IMF COVID-19 loan

Nigeria has been removed from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) credit outstanding list for the period of May 1 to May 6, 2025.

The updated list, published on Tuesday, includes more than 90 countries with a combined debt of $117.79 billion, but Nigeria is no longer among them.

According to IMF data, Nigeria received SDR 2.45 billion from the Bretton Woods institution in 2020. The repayments were made in installments: SDR 613.62 million in 2023, SDR 1.22 billion in 2024, and SDR 613.62 million in 2025.

Special Drawing Rights (SDR) serve as a currency reserve used by the IMF.

Commenting on the development on Thursday via Twitter, Tolu Ogunlesi, former special assistant on digital and new media to former President Muhammadu Buhari, who was serving his second term when the loan was obtained, confirmed that Nigeria’s payment of SDR2.45 billion fully repays the $3.4 billion Covid-19 loan from the IMF under the rapid financing instrument (RFI).

Ogunlesi said the five-year repayment period had been completed under the current administration, in line with the agreed terms.

“This US$3.4 billion (equivalent to 2.454.5 billion SDR; amounting to 100% of our SDR quota) Covid-19 assistance from the IMF to @NigeriaGov, under the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), has now been fully repaid, in line with the terms of the agreement,” he explained.

“A repayment period of 5 years, meaning 2020 to 2025, and a moratorium of 3.25 years, meaning that we had a grace period until Q3 2023 before we had to start repaying.

“PBAT has kept to the terms, and as of May 2025, the loan has been fully repaid. Naija no dey carry last, and we no dey default.

“This is what the repayment schedule looks like, from the @IMFNews website: Outstanding as at June 30, 2023: 2,454,500,000.

“Dec 31, 2023: 1,840,875,000; June 30, 2024: 1,227,250,000; March 31, 2025: 306,810,000; May 07, 2025: 0.”

Also, O’tega Ogra, senior special assistant on digital and new media to President Bola Tinubu, said, with the repayment, Nigeria is now better placed to strengthen our fiscal credibility and show the world, and Nigerians, that Nigeria is serious about managing our economy with responsibility and vision.

Ogra added that, henceforth, any future engagement will be proactive, not reactive and will also be based on partnership, not dependence.

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