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After steady growth, the FCT’s debt spiked sharply by 139% in Q4 2025
  • FCT Abuja’s domestic debt jumped from ₦79 billion to ₦189 billion in one quarter.
  • This equals a 139.1% quarter-on-quarter increase.
  • Before Q4 2025, debt growth was relatively moderate.
  • Debt fell in 2024 before recovering in 2025.
  • The 2025 recovery was gradual until the final-quarter spike.
  • Q4 2025 pushed debt to the highest level in the series.

Lagos, Rivers, and four other states account for 52% of all Nigerian states' domestic debt and 40% of their external debt
  • Lagos dominates Nigeria’s subnational debt profile, accounting for 26.1% of domestic debt and 21.8% of external debt.
  • Six states account for 52% of domestic debt.
  • The same group contributes 40% of the external debt
  • Rivers ranks second in domestic debt (9.5%) but has a significantly lower external debt (3.8%).
  • Kaduna emerges as a major external borrower (13.7%) despite not appearing among the top domestic debt states.

Finance & Insurance now makes up 30% of Nigeria’s domestic company income tax, up from 12% in 2022
  • Company income tax collections rose from ₦1.7tn in 2022 to ₦5.0tn in 2025.
  • Finance & Insurance more than doubled its share, from 12.4% to 30.0%.
  • Finance became the largest single sector in the tax mix by 2025.
  • Manufacturing remained important, but its share fell from 27.9% to 17.7%.
  • ICT saw one of the sharpest declines, from 21.6% to 6.5%.
  • Mining & quarrying gained weight, rising from 8.4% to 14.5%.
  • Wholesale & retail also increased, from 3.6% to 7.0%.
  • The tax base became less evenly distributed across sectors.

Nigeria's VAT collections have more than tripled in three years
  • Nigeria’s total VAT rose from ₦2.5tn in 2022 to ₦8.6tn in 2025.
  • VAT collections more than tripled in four years.
  • Local VAT remained the largest source of VAT throughout the period.
  • Local VAT increased from ₦1.5tn to ₦4.5tn.
  • Local VAT averaged 54.4% of total VAT between 2022 and 2025.
  • Import VAT also grew strongly, from ₦521.5bn to ₦2.0tn.
  • Other payment channels rose from ₦510.8bn to ₦2.1tn.
  • VAT growth is increasingly being driven by non-import activity.

Agriculture’s share of Nigeria’s capital imports peaked at 5.46% in 2021 before falling to 0.72% in 2025
  • Agriculture’s share of Nigeria’s capital imports peaked at 5.46% in 2021
  • After 2025, agriculture's share started falling sharply, reaching 0.72% in 2025.
  • Between 2017 and 2021, the sector experienced consistent growth in both value and share.
  • Capital import value peaked at at $489.9 million in 2019.

The CCG ranked Africa the worst in terms of quality of governance, with a score of 0.4 in 2025
  • Africa ranks last globally in governance quality with a score of 0.4.
  • Europe and North America (0.668) outperform Africa by a significant margin.
  • Nigeria ranks 116th out of 120 countries.
  • Governance directly affects economic outcomes such as investment, business growth, and living standards.

85 cents of every dollar in capital imported into Nigeria in 2025 went to portfolio investments
  • Nigeria's total capital imports surged to $23.2bn in 2025, the highest level recorded in the entire 2014 to 2025 period.
  • Foreign Portfolio Investment dominated in 2025, claiming 85 cents of every dollar imported, up sharply from 68% in 2024.
  • Foreign Direct Investment has remained consistently weak, never exceeding 20% across all eleven years, and falling to just 4% in 2025.
  • The "Others" category, which peaked at 61% in 2023, has collapsed to just 11% in 2025, reflecting a dramatic shift toward portfolio-driven capital flows

Nigeria's foreign capital inflows nearly reached the 2019 record, but 87% went to banks and financiers
  • Inflows surged from $3.9B in 2023 to $23.2B in 2025, near the all-time record.
  • Banking and financing captured 87% of all inflows.
  • Agriculture got $167M, oil and gas $18M, and construction $6M, .
  • The recovery is real, but it is not yet reaching ordinary Nigerians.

Each Nigerian president since 2011 has won with fewer votes than his predecessor
  • Bola Tinubu won the 2023 election with just 36.6% of the valid votes.
  • There is a clear downward trend in winners’ vote share since 2011, with each election producing a less dominant winner.
  • Peak dominance occurred in 2007, when Umaru Musa Yar'Adua won with 69.6% of the votes.
  • The total votes secured by winners have dropped sharply, from over 24 million (2003–2007) to 8.8 million in 2023.
  • In 2023, over 60% of valid votes went to candidates who lost.

Nigeria’s serving governors average 60 years of age as of March 2026
  • Nigeria’s youngest serving governor is Usman Ahmed Ododo of Kogi state at 48 years old.
  • The oldest serving governors are Bala Mohammed and Hope Uzodimma, both aged 67.
  • President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is 73 years old, making him older than every sitting governor.
  • Tinubu is 25 years older than the youngest governor and six years older than the oldest governors.
  • A number of governors are in their late 50s, including Seyi Makinde, Hyacinth Alia, and Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
  • The age distribution suggests that Nigeria’s state leadership is largely dominated by experienced, older political figures rather than younger politicians.

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