Over the decades, Nigeria has been entangled within a close range of the most Indebted nations in Africa. 

Successive government administrations have paid off amount of debts while decisions to accrued more debt in order to balance the overhead cost had made their attempts ended in the ground level.

However, it seems like the recent policies implemented by the Federal Government of Nigeria had changed the narrative as the country has now exited list of the first 20 most indebted countries in the continent.

According to the list released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on June 26, 2025 Nigeria has now paid off significant part of its debt, setting a future free of spending the country's resources on debt services.

As it stands, below is the list of the first 20 most indebted African countries and the amount they currently owe.

1 🇪🇬Egypt— $5.47bn

2 🇰🇪Kenya— $2.21bn

3 🇦🇴Angola— $2.01bn

4 🇨🇮Cote d'Ivoire— $1.86bn

5 🇬🇭Ghana— $1.79bn

6 🇨🇩Congo DR— $1.29bn

7 🇪🇹Ethiopia— $1.03bn

8 🇨🇲Cameroon— $863.26m

9 🇹🇿Tanzania— $736.69m

10 🇸🇳Senegal— $732.64m

11 🇿🇲Zambia— $724.72m

12 🇺🇬Uganda— $724.64m

13 🇸🇩Sudan— $723.76m

14 🇲🇦Morocco— $684.31m

15 🇧🇯Benin— $559.00m

16 🇲🇬Madagascar— $507.72m

17 🇷🇼Rwanda— $442.89m

18 🇲🇿Mozambique— $398.01m

19 🇹🇳Tunisia— $384.04m

20 🇹🇩Chad— $334.61m

Recall that in April 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led Administration paid back $3.4 billion of Nigeria's debt to IMF with a standing debt of $30 million yearly service charge.

It is also important to note that the above ranking is based on how African countries are indebted to IMF only and does not include the debt owed to other international loan providers.

For instance, as of June 30, 2025 Nigeria still remain third most indebted nation in the world and first in Africa to the World Bank's International Development Association owing an outstanding debt of $16.5 billion (about 8% of total external debt of all African countries). This debt is the accumulation of transactions on all external debts incurred by successive government in Nigeria since independence.