Wednesday 01 April, 2026

Nigeria borrowed $1bn to fix its ports and routed a third of the contracts back to the lender's economy

There's a version of the UK ports deal that sounds like good news. Nigeria's Apapa and Tin Can Island ports handle over 70 percent of the country's imports and exports. They are throttled by congestion, aging infrastructure, and cargo clearance delays that raise the cost of every manufactured item passing through them. The deal signed during President Tinubu's March state visit to London brings £746 million ($1bn) in financing to fix that. The UK government described it as "the most ambitious modernisation of Nigeria's seaport infrastructure in nearly 50 years."

But read the actual terms.

The financing is a UK Export Finance Buyer Credit Facility, arranged by Citibank. That structure means the money flows through a UK government export credit agency whose mandate is not Nigeria's development. Its mandate is supporting UK exporters. At least £236 million in supplier contracts will go to British companies, including a £70 million contract for British Steel, the largest export order in that company's history. The UK government's own press release described the deal as "a major vote of confidence in UK manufacturing." That is an honest description. What it is honest about is who the deal primarily serves.

Nigeria will repay every naira of this. The interest rate has not been published. The repayment timeline has not been published. Daily Trust's analysis estimates the naira equivalent at N1.45 to 1.5 trillion. The National Assembly, which under the constitution is supposed to scrutinise foreign borrowing before funds are committed, held no public hearings. The deal was sealed at a state visit and the Senate approved the broader N6bn loan package within hours of receiving the request, the same week.

This is the pattern. Not a conspiracy. A structure.

When a wealthy country lends a developing country money to buy things from the wealthy country's own companies, that is not aid. It is a trade deal with extra steps. The ports may get better. Cargo clearance times may improve. The cost of goods may fall over time if the construction is competent and the project is well governed. All of that is possible. It is also possible that Nigeria ends up with upgraded ports, a N1.5 trillion debt with undisclosed terms, British Steel's order book replenished, and no public record of what was negotiated on Nigeria's behalf.

The ADC has already called it a "mugu deal". That framing is politically motivated and also structurally correct. The question every Nigerian should be asking right now is not whether fixing Apapa is worthwhile. Of course it is. The question is why the terms of a N1.5 trillion sovereign debt have not been made public, why parliament was bypassed, and why a project sold as Nigeria's infrastructure win was structured to guarantee a record export contract for a British steel company the week the UK announced its steel industry rescue strategy.

The ports will be built. Someone will pay for them. That someone is every Nigerian who buys, sells, or moves anything through Lagos.