Former Education and Solid Minerals Minister, Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, has called on President Bola Tinubu to terminate Nigeria’s £746 million ports financing deal with the United Kingdom, raising concerns over the lack of transparency surrounding the agreement.
Ezekwesili said 152 days after Tinubu signed the agreement during his official visit to London, the Nigerian and UK governments had yet to disclose its terms, including the interest rate and repayment schedule.
She argued that the secrecy was particularly troubling as Nigeria’s public debt has risen sharply while debt servicing is consuming a large share of government revenue.
“Against this backdrop, the Tinubu government added a £746 million ports deal whose terms remain hidden,” Ezekwesili said, describing the arrangement as “not a grant, nor aid” but a sovereign debt obligation.
Debt burden raises concern
According to Ezekwesili, Nigeria’s public debt has increased from ₦87 trillion in May 2023 to more than ₦152 trillion, while debt service now consumes more than 60 per cent of government revenues.
She also raised concerns about the government’s borrowing pace, putting its annual borrowing rate at nearly ₦50 trillion.
Pinnacle Daily reports that the ports financing agreement was signed on March 19, 2026, with President Tinubu witnessing the signing between Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance and Citibank in London.
The £746 million facility, equivalent to about $1 billion, is intended to modernise the Apapa and Tin Can Island port complexes in Lagos by moving them from manual operations to automated systems.
The government has presented the investment as a major infrastructure project aimed at reducing cargo dwell time and congestion at Nigeria’s main ports.
However, Ezekwesili questioned the terms under which the infrastructure would be financed.
She said the facility was “a commercial loan arranged by Citibank London, guaranteed by UK Export Finance, and structured to benefit British exporters.”
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British firms set to benefit
The structure of the financing has also become a major part of the criticism.
Under the UK Export Finance guarantee, at least £236 million of the contracts is reserved for British suppliers. British Steel alone has secured a £70 million contract, which the company described as one of the largest in its history.
Ezekwesili argued that the arrangement effectively leaves Nigeria with the debt while British companies benefit from a significant portion of the contracts.
“Nigeria borrowed the money that British companies will harvest the contracts, and Nigerians will repay the debt,” she said.
She questioned why the government had not published the interest rate and repayment timeline of the facility, arguing that Nigerians should be able to assess the full financial implications of the agreement.
BudgIT flags wider transparency gaps
The concerns over the ports deal come as BudgIT had also reportedly raised broader questions about Nigeria’s public financial management, citing findings from the US Department of State’s 2026 Fiscal Transparency Report.
BudgIT said the report should serve as a call for action after it found that Nigeria made no significant progress in improving financial management and opening its public finances in 2025.
The assessment found that Nigeria’s budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of government revenues and expenditures.
It also said actual revenues and spending did not reasonably correspond with the enacted budget and faulted the government for failing to publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable period.
BudgIT said these gaps undermine the credibility of the budget because citizens cannot easily determine what the government planned to receive and spend compared with what was actually collected and spent.
The organisation called for regular publication of revenue and expenditure reports.
Procurement transparency under scrutiny
BudgIT also raised concerns about the independence of Nigeria’s supreme audit institution, saying the Auditor-General’s office did not meet international standards of independence and had not published substantive audit reports.
It called for reforms to strengthen the office’s independence and legal framework.
The organisation further identified procurement transparency as a concern, saying information on public contracts was not sufficiently accessible for citizens to track projects from bidding and award through completion.
BudgIT called for routine publication of contract awards, contract values, implementation status and variations.
It acknowledged that Nigeria had made its enacted budget, end-of-year report and government debt information accessible, but said publication alone was insufficient where information was delayed or incomplete.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X