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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Nigeria will pay $30 million annually as special drawing rights (SDR) charges for the loan the country obtained to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and the steep drop in oil prices in 2020.
The SDR is an international reserve asset used by the IMF, with its value based on a basket of five currencies — the US dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen, and the British pound sterling.
The charges refer to the cost of borrowing from the IMF, expressed in the IMF’s accounting unit, the SDR
On Thursday, reported data from the Bretton Woods institution showed that Nigeria had cleared the $3.4 billion pandemic loan.
The repayments, according to the IMF data, were made as follows: SDR613.62 million in 2023, SDR1.22 billion in 2024, and SDR613.62 million in 2025.
In a statement on Thursday, the fund confirmed that Nigeria has fully repaid the financial support.
“As of April 30, 2025, Nigeria has fully repaid the financial support of about US$3.4 billion it requested and received in April 2020 from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Rapid Financing Instrument to help alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp fall in oil prices,” the statement reads.
“Nigeria is expected to honor additional payments in the form of Special Drawing Rights charges of about US$30 million annually.
“In line with the IMF’s Articles of Agreements, these charges, levied at the SDR interest rate, which is updated at the beginning of each week, apply to the difference between Nigeria’s SDR holdings (SDR 3,164 million) (US$4.3 billion) and its cumulative SDR allocation (SDR 4,027 million) (US$5.5 billion).”
The lender said the net payment of the charges stops when Nigeria’s SDR holdings reach the cumulative allocation amount.
