Nigeria's debt-to-GDP ratio dropped from 35.5 percent in 2025 to 32.3 percent in 2026, according to the IMF's latest Fiscal Monitor report released at the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC. The fund projects the ratio will ease further to 30.1 percent by 2031, though Nigeria's total public debt (owed by both federal and state governments) rose to 159.27 trillion naira by the end of 2025, up from 144.67 trillion naira a year earlier. The figures come as the IMF warned that tightening fiscal space in low-income developing countries risks forcing cuts to health, education, and social protection spending, with global gross public debt now at 93.9 percent of world GDP and on track to reach 100 percent by 2029.