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The China Debt Story in Nigeria Makes Headlines Even When It Shouldn’t

by Eric Olander
Tuesday news headline from the popular Nigerian news site Legit.

Nigeria marked an important milestone this week when its total public debt topped 49 trillion naira or $108 billion. Curiously, the editors at the popular online news site Legit thought that the country’s $4.15 billion debt to China was worth mentioning in the story’s headline.

The reason this is odd is because Chinese loans account for just 3.8% of Nigeria’s total public debt, whereas in the past two months alone, the Federal Government borrowed $4.6 billion from elsewhere to plug its ballooning budget deficit.

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