LAGOS State with a foreign debt of $1.27bn (Domestic debt – N877.04bn), Kaduna with $586.78m (Domestic – N86.86bn) and Rivers with $240.18m (Domestic – N225,51bn) are the top three states with the highest foreign debt for 2022, according to data from the Debt Management Office (DMO).
In a reply to a Freedom of Information (FoI) enquiry by News Point Nigeria on Monday, the DMO data revealed that, Cross River with $215.75m (Domestic – N175.2), Ogun with $122.73 (Domestic – N241.78) and Bauchi with $172.76m (Domestic – N144.28bn) followed Rivers as 4th, 5th and 6th respectively.
Conversely, Zamfara with $29.33m (Domestic – N109.69bn), Yobe with $23.09m (Domestic – N92.86bn) and Taraba with $22..28m (Domestic – N90.81bn) had the least foreign debts respectively.
Following Bauchi on 6th are: Enugu with $123.02m ( Domestic – N89.89bn) and Kano with $109.43m (Domestic – N125.19bn) on 7th and 8th respectively.
Others are, in alphabetical order: Abia with $95.63m (Domestic – N104.57bn), Adamawa with $77.01m (Domestic – N122.48bn) and Akwa Ibom with $46.567m (Domestic – N219.62bn).
The rest are: Benue with $30.47m (Domestic – N143.37bn), Borno with $18.7m (Domestic – 95.33bn), Delta with $60..05m (Domestic – N272.61bn), Ebonyi with $59.84m (Domestic – N67.06bn) and Gombe with $46.93 (Domestic – N139.1bn).
Others are: Jigawa with $27.61m (Domestic – N44.41bn), Katsina with $55.82m (Domestic – N62.37bn), Kebbi with $42.40m (Domestic – N60.13bn), Kwara with $45.94m (Domestic – N109.55bn) and Nasarawa with $53.73m (Domestic – N72.63bn).
The rest are: Niger with $69.27m (Domestic – N98.26bn), Oyo with $76.97m (Domestic – N160.07bn), Plateau with $33.74m (Domestic – N151.90bn), Sokoto with $37.13m (Domestic – N85.58bn) and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with $25.38 (Domestic – N112.49bn).
News Points Nigeria recalled that, the Federal Government Technical Adviser on post COVID-19 Economic Recovery, Mr Taiwo Akerele, has declared that most of the development challenges of the country lied with the state government in Nigeria who he said were responsible for 35 percent of the current debt profile of Nigeria and also jointly 30 percent with the federal government.
Akerele, who was also former Chief of Staff to Governor Obaseki of Edo State, said this in a statement titled: “Stop The Ostrich Game: Governors Can Change The Narrative of Development,” in Benin City.
He also blamed state governors for the deficiencies in the healthcare delivery and road infrastructure, particularly those from opposition political parties.
He said: “I have watched with amazement how state governors, especially those in the opposition, have continuously heaped the blame of under development on the federal government especially in the health and education sectors and in recent times the spiraling debt crisis in the country.
“On the issue of national debt overhang, a governor in one of the south south states was recently quoted to have said that Nigeria’s debt is inching close to N60 trillion (about $134 billion), and concluded that Nigeria has failed already.
“It is not my responsibility as a policy analyst to confirm or contradict the governors’ claims as the Debt Management Office (DMO) and the CBN have such responsibility vested in them.
“However, I had thought that the same governor will go ahead to state in equivocal terms his own state share of the debt overhang and what it has achieved with it for the purpose they were approved for. This was not to be as he again played the ostrich.”
The Director, Portfolio Management Department of the DMO, Dele Afolabi, had said last week told Punch that, each state was expected to send in quarterly information on their domestic debts.
He added that by being transparent with their debt profiles, states would be able to access more funding.
News Point Nigeria observed that the debt servicing is done by the Federal Government but it is deducted from the federal allocation to the states.