amortisation schedule
Amortisation Schedule is the full table showing how each loan repayment splits between interest and principal until the balance reaches zero.
In plain English
Think of it as the report card for a loan, printed out in full from the first payment to the last. Every row tells you what you paid that month, how much went to the bank as interest, how much actually reduced what you owe, and what balance is left standing after that.
Most people only see the monthly figure their bank tells them to pay, ₦85,000 or whatever it is, and assume the loan is shrinking evenly. It is not. In the early months, a painfully large share of that ₦85,000 goes to interest, and only a small bit chips away at the principal. A Lagos landlord who took a mortgage from a Nigerian bank to build that duplex in Magodo will notice this in year one, the balance barely moves even though he has been paying faithfully. By year fifteen of a twenty year loan, the arithmetic flips, most of the payment now attacks the principal directly.
In the United Kingdom, someone with a student loan or a car finance agreement from a lender like Zopa gets sent something close to this schedule, sometimes as a downloadable table on the online portal. It lets them see exactly when the interest portion drops below the principal portion, which is often the moment a loan starts to feel like it is finally moving.
The schedule matters most when you are deciding whether to pay extra. Overpay early in the loan's life and you attack the interest heavy years directly, saving yourself a good sum over time. Overpay late in the loan, when principal is already dominant, and the saving is smaller. Anyone who has ever asked why their loan balance seems stuck despite months of payment will find the answer sitting calmly in this table.
Ask your bank or lender for it. It is usually one spreadsheet or one PDF, and it turns a confusing loan into something you can actually read and plan around.
A ₦5,000,000 loan at 18 percent over five years might show a first month payment of ₦127,000, of which ₦75,000 is interest and only ₦52,000 reduces the principal. By month fifty, that same ₦127,000 payment might have only ₦4,000 going to interest, with ₦123,000 finally attacking the principal.
Questions people ask
Can I request an amortisation schedule from any Nigerian bank?
Yes. Most banks can generate one for any loan or mortgage on request, and some show it automatically on the loan statement or app once you know to look for it.
Does paying extra always help if I look at the schedule?
It helps most when done early in the loan, since that is when interest takes the largest bite. Ask the lender to apply extra payments to principal directly, more than as an advance payment.
Why does my balance seem stuck even though I am paying every month?
In the early stretch of most loans, a large share of each payment covers interest rather than principal, so the balance falls slowly at first before speeding up later.
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