The Debt Management Office (DMO) has revealed in its latest report the current debt profile of the 36 states of the federation as well as the those of the federal government.
In its 2019 second quarter report on net borrowings, the debt management agency, the aggregate of both external and domestic debts owed by the Nigerian states government rose from N5.15 trillion recorded in December 2018 to N5.27 trillion in June 2019, indicating a 2.9% increment translating into N126.2 billion.
According to Nairametrics, the external debt for states increased from N1.3 trillion as at December 2018 to N1.31 trillion in June 2019 while the total domestic debt stock for the states increased to N3.97 trillion from N3.85 trillion within six months.
In the DMO report, oil rich states such as Rivers, Imo and others took the lead in the lists of states debtors and their debts while Lagos, which as at June top the debt list with N915.2 billion, has reduced its debt stock greatly by N52.7 billion. Meanwhile, some other states have also cut their debt stock greatly.
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For the period under review which is the second quarter that ended in June, 2019, the top 10 states with the highest debt stock include Rivers (N291.7 billion), Delta (N252.8 billion), Cross River (N227.9 billion) and Akwa-Ibom (N220.2 billion), Osun (N174.7 billion), Imo (N169.7 billion), Edo (N169.7 billion), Kaduna (N169.2 billion) and Bayelsa (N150.5 billion).
Despite being an oil-rich state, Imo state borrowed the sum of N52.6 billion between January and June 2019, ranking 7th with the biggest overall debt stock across all the states in the country. Rivers and Katsina rank 2nd and 3rd with a debt stock of N42.1 billion and N34 billion in just 6-month respectively.
Other states in the top 10 with the biggest borrowing in the last 6-month are Kogi (N20.06 billion), Borno (N93.4 billion), Oyo (N141.6 billion), Gombe (N16.1 billion), Taraba (N11.8 billion), Kaduna (N11.5 billion) and Akwa Ibom (N7.5 billion).
Also, the report shows that FCT’s debt reduced by N32.2 billion; Ekiti State by N31.5 billion while Ebonyi State’s debt reduced by N10.7 billion.
Samson Oyedeyi
