Nigeria’s debt is climbing fast, hitting a staggering ₦149.39 trillion ($97.24 billion), and now, one civic-tech group is calling for answers.

Citizen Monitors, a platform dedicated to holding government accountable, says the problem isn’t the loans themselves, but the secrecy surrounding how they’re spent.

“Debt isn’t the enemy, opacity is,” said Co-founder Adeshope Haastrup in a statement. “If loans are truly for classrooms, clinics, power, and jobs, then publish the term sheets, publish the project milestones, and let citizens see the outputs, month by month.”

The group is pushing for the Federal Government to make every borrowing visible and verifiable. Their suggestions include:

Publishing non-confidential loan agreements

Providing quarterly, easy-to-read debt data

Capping certain types of foreign loans

Creating public dashboards to track projects

Disclosing commodity-backed deals

Enforcing open contracting with independent oversight

Citizen Monitors argues that without this transparency, Nigerians will eventually feel the cost of debt through service cuts, higher taxes, or a weaker naira.

And there’s a lot to keep track of from $2.25 billion borrowed from the World Bank in June 2024 for macroeconomic reforms, to over $1 billion in April 2025 for education, nutrition, and resilience, plus hundreds of millions from China for rail and road projects.

“Every kilometre of road, every classroom, every megawatt built with borrowed funds should be visible and verifiable,” added Head of Communications Olajumoke Alawode-James.

The group’s message is simple: publish it, track it, and show it so debt can become a tool for progress, not just a burden for the future.