By Danladi Ahmed
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has described World Bank’s latest report on Nigeria as a confirmation of the current economic viability of all tiers of government owing to the effective reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
This is because state government revenues have risen in real terms by 93% between 2023 and 2025 even though cost of servicing domestic debts have also gone up.
In a statement signed by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, the group argued that the report titled ‘Beyond the Federal Purse: How Higher Revenues Reshaped State Priorities.’ is not all bad news.
It said: “We are aware that the World Bank’s latest Nigeria Development Update (NDU) has been eliciting comments over revelations that the country’s interest payments rose to N7.7 trillion in the first half of 2026 from N5.6 trillion in the corresponding period of 2025.
“What we however found confounding is how those critics are acting oblivious to the Bank’s very positive affirmation of an economy that is now largely stable with poverty level stabilizing for the first time since 2019.
“In addition, the World Bank report noted that the economy grew by 4.2% in the first half of 2026, up from 3.9% in the same period of 2025 and is projected to further grow by 4.4% between 2026 and 2028. This is inspite of the impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East on the global economy. The Bank is also projecting that inflation rate will drop to about 12% by 2028 from the 2025 level of 15.2%.
“We invite Nigerians to note that the World Bank report credits the Tinubu reforms with improving federation revenues and growing it by 69% in real terms between 2023 and 2025, with states as the biggest beneficiaries.
“This has led to no fewer than 21 states reducing their debt-to-GDP ratio between 2021 and 2025 considerably. Also, higher FAAC allocations has provided a platform for as many as 31 states to grow their Internally generated revenue (IGR) according to the World Bank report.
The group added that even though the Bank raised some concerns over the high cost of debt servicing, it was restricted to domestic borrowings which stood at N91.59 trillion as at June 2026.
“The concerns raised by World Bank on cost of servicing domestic borrowing are valid and this is because domestic borrowings make up more than 57% of the country’s public debt profile but generate about 72% of interest payments on debt servicing.
“It is also true that the domestic debt component of Nigeria’s debt stock includes the N64.88 trillion federal government bonds, the securitized N22.11 trillion ‘ways and means’ advances inherited from the previous administrations and subnational debt of N4.59 trillion owed collectively by all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“It is a statement of fact that the domestic debt is more expensive than external concessional loans because the government must offer yields competitive with Central Bank’s rates to attract investors for bonds and treasury bills and as such had been paying massive interests to local lenders.
“However, with the CBN’s recent decision to cut benchmark rate from 26.5% to 23%, we are bound to see a reduction in the cost of servicing local debts which will ultimately lower the government’s domestic debt servicing burden especially in the second half of the year,” the statement added.
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