Lagos, Ogun, Rivers Leads As States’ Debts Hit ₦6.43tn

Nigeria’s most populous state, Lagos has led its counterparts to amass a debt of ₦6.43tn at the end of the year 2022.

Lagos is owning ₦658.96bn while Ogun owns ₦232.62bn followed by Rivers ₦225.51bn.

Naija News understands that the total debt figure reported is owed by state governments and the Federal Capital Territory Administration.

While sub-national domestic debt stock was ₦4.46tn, the sub-national external debt stock was ₦1.97tn in 2021.

Lagos, Ogun and Rivers topped the chart as the three most indebted states, according to the latest data from the Debt Management Office.

The ₦4.46tn domestic debt represents 11.27 per cent of the country’s domestic debt stock of ₦23.70tn as of December 2021, up from ₦20.21tn in the previous year.

Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Imo respectively emerged as the top five debtors, with a combined domestic debt stock of about ₦1.56tn.

The five states account for 34.98 per cent of the total domestic debt owed by the sub-national governments in the country as of December 31, 2021, Naija News understands.

Akwa Ibom State debt is currently ₦214.61bn while Imo owed ₦205.19bn as of Q4 2021.

Meanwhile, the Debt Management Office has revealed that the Federal Government has incurred ₦950bn new domestic borrowing between January 2022 and March 11, 2022.

The Director-General of DMO, Patience Oniha disclosed the fresh borrowing on March 17 in the presentation of the Public Debt Data as of December 31, 2021, Naija News reports.

According to Oniha, the Federal Government is considering all options to raise funds externally.

She said, “All options for raising funds externally are being considered. These include funding from multilateral and bilateral sources, the International Capital Markets and the $3.35bn Special Drawing Rights allocated by the International Monetary Fund to the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

The document further disclosed that the Federal Government has plans to borrow an additional ₦1.6tn, while the 2022 debt target for domestic borrowing is ₦2.57tn.

According to the document released by DMO, the Federal Government also has plans to borrow ₦2.57tn from foreign creditors, while ₦1.16tn is expected from multilateral/bilateral drawdowns.

The latest borrowing will see the Federal Government add ₦6.3tn new debts to the current debt stock, which would push the country’s total debt stock to ₦45.86tn by December 2022.