Under the administration of Nyesom Wike as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja’s domestic debt stock has experienced a dramatic surge, propelling the capital from being one of Nigeria’s least indebted sub-national entities to the second-highest borrower in the country.

According to official data from the Debt Management Office reviewed by Premium Times, the FCT’s domestic liabilities stood at approximately ₦88.51 billion shortly after Wike assumed office in late August 2023, placing the territory 29th out of 37 sub-national governments in debt burden.

However, by early 2026, that figure expanded to ₦389.88 billion—reflecting a massive 340.5 percent increase that added over ₦301 billion to the capital’s total domestic debt obligations.

The debt trajectory reveals a particularly sharp escalation in the latter half of the minister’s tenure. While domestic debt fluctuated modestly throughout late 2023 and 2024, descending to roughly ₦53.43 billion by September 2024 before climbing back to around ₦78.93 billion a year later, the final quarter of 2025 marked a significant turning point.

Between September 2025 and March 2026, the debt total skyrocketed by over ₦310 billion in a span of just six months. This rapid accumulation occurred alongside substantial revenue inflows, as the territory received a cumulative total of ₦432.13 billion in allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee between August 2023 and March 2026, with further monthly allocations steadily increasing into mid-2026.

Despite this sharp rise in financial liabilities and parallel increases in federal allocations, the FCT Administration has faced criticism regarding fiscal transparency. Successive budget documents, annual performance metrics, and audited financial statements have not been made accessible to the public on the administration’s official portals since 2023.

This lack of publicly disclosed financial records obscures how total revenues and new debt are being managed or allocated toward capital projects, raising critical questions among financial analysts and residents about the overall scale, strategic purpose, and long-term sustainability of the territory’s expanding borrowing spree.