Big borrowers cut about N2.26 trillion of debt in nine months. Smaller companies that depend on Nigerian banks are still paying close to 30%.
Nigeria’s biggest companies are doing something they rarely manage: paying down debt.
Seven of the largest non-bank borrowers on the Nigerian Exchange cut their combined borrowings by about N2.26 trillion in the nine months to September.
That is according to a review of third-quarter filings of more than a dozen companies. Dangote Cement alone shed N536 billion, nearly half of its debt; Nigerian Breweries owed N137 billion a year ago and now owes nothing.
Not everyone is deleveraging, as BUA Cement, Julius Berger, VFD Group and Conoil added about N240 billion between them. The cost of borrowing also varies widely, with companies that can borrow from development lenders or their foreign parents paying 8% to 10% in interest rates. Those that rely on Nigerian banks pay close to 30%; the gap is now one of the clearest dividing lines in corporate Nigeria.
Most of the debt reduction came from cement, oil and telecoms. Dangote Cement’s borrowings, counting overdrafts and loans from related parties, fell from N1.12 trillion at the end of 2025 to N580 billion. The company repaid N209.6 billion of commercial paper. It also cleared a N299.6 billion loan from its parent, Dangote Industries. Nine-month interest expense fell 63% to N102.9 billion.
A firmer naira helped by shrinking the naira value of dollar loans. Seplat recorded N99 billion of exchange differences on its borrowings this year. Nestlé Nigeria recorded a N33.9 billion unrealised exchange gain on its loans.
The biggest change is in who is doing the lending. Loans from parent companies and other related parties are shrinking fastest.
Short-term market debt is also falling out of favour. Dangote Cement and Fidson Healthcare each repaid all of their commercial paper. Fidson had been paying 23% to 24.75% on its notes and now borrows from the Bank of Industry at 14% to 15% and from Nigeria’s export-import bank at 9%. Its interest bill fell 27%.
What a Nigerian company pays to borrow depends mostly on who it borrows from.
BUA Cement’s interest bill works out to about 9% a year on its average debt, as most of its N657 billion of borrowings is a dollar loan syndicated by the International Finance Corp., the World Bank’s private-sector arm. Airtel Africa’s average borrowing rate fell to 10.1% from 12.4% a year earlier, while Cadbury pays about 10% on its loan from Mondelez.
At the expensive end, Beta Glass pays about 29% on N40 billion of bank loans priced off the central bank’s policy rate. Its interest bill rose 67% this year even though its debt barely changed. Conoil is funded entirely by bank overdrafts, which its filing says cost about 32%. The overdraft grew 18% to N64.8 billion, and interest expense at least doubled.
Beta Glass also raises a related-party question. While paying close to 30% to banks, it has lent N48.4 billion to its parent, Packaging Industries, part of a group owned by Helios Investment Partners. Most of that loan’s growth this year was unpaid interest: N8.2 billion accrued, but only N2.4 billion was repaid in cash.
Cheap dollar debt has its own risk. BUA Cement’s borrowing is cheap only while the naira holds. The company booked N36.1 billion of exchange gains on its borrowings and cash in nine months, and those gains would reverse if the currency weakens.
Most of the companies adding debt are also borrowing to invest, and the most indebted is still trying to swap its loans for equity.
What changed is its customer funding which it relies on to stay liquid. Advance payments from clients, long Julius Berger’s free source of working capital, fell N121 billion to N409 billion. Spending on plant and equipment rose to N36.3 billion from N6.8 billion.
It also plans to convert $300 million of debt into shares and to launch a refinancing programme of up to $1.5 billion. Until those deals close, its shareholders are mainly working for its lenders.
How this analysis was done: We reviewed third-quarter 2026 filings and results releases from more than 30 non-bank companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange. Borrowings include bank loans, bonds, commercial paper, overdrafts and loans from related parties. Interest rates are approximations: nine-month interest annualised and divided by average debt. Conoil reports three different prior-year interest figures. C&I Leasing’s notes disagree on its year-end term loans.
