By Abiola Olawale
In less than a year of holding office, 13 state governors have unabashedly borrowed a whopping N226.8bn from both domestic and foreign financiers.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) in its latest report on the borrowing activities of Nigeria’s sub-national governments, revealed that the 13 newly elected governors collectively borrowed a total of N226.8 billion within their first six months of assuming office.
The report further indicates that the sub-national debts are categorized into two, namely domestic borrowings from local creditors and external borrowings from international creditors such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The external debt was calculated based on the exchange rate of N889/$ used by the Debt Management Office in its report.
A breakdown of the report showed that Benue, Cross Rivers, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Zamfara, and the Federal Capital Territory, got N115.57bn from domestic creditors. At the same time, governors of Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, and Zamfara borrowed $125.1m (N111.24bn) from external sources.
For the sub-nationals, a further breakdown of the data showed that Governor Bassey Otu of Cross Rivers, took the highest loan, with N16.2bn from domestic and $57.95m from foreign creditors between June and December 2023.
Second on the list is Governor Dikko Umar Radda of Katsina state who took about N36.93bn resulting in a debt surge as the state’s debt grew from N62.37bn to N99.3bn by December 2023.
Third on the list is Governor Mohammed Umar Bago of Niger, with a domestic debt of N17.85bn, surging from N121.95bn in June 2023 to N139.8bn by December of the same year.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau got N16.32bn; Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers borrowed N7.07bn; Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara borrowed N14.26bn; and the FCT under the leadership of Nyesom Wike borrowed N6.75bn from domestic creditors.
For foreign debt, Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi accumulated external debt of $37.54m, while Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna borrowed $17.69m from external financiers.
Similarly, the governors of Kano borrowed $6.6m; Niger, $1.27m; Plateau, $831,008; Sokoto, $499,472; Taraba, $1.51m; and Zamfara, $655,563, from external sources.
The New Diplomat reports that this information is coming amidst reports that state governors got the most Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations in at least seven years. The rise in FAAC allocations to the three tiers of government, especially the states, had been attributed to the removal of subsidy and currency reforms by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. The reforms have reportedly led to a 40 percent boost in income.
An analysis of the 2023 FAAC monthly allocations revealed that the sub-national and local government councils got the highest allocation of N627.73bn in September, followed by N610.5bn in December, N555.75bn in August, N533bn in November, N514bn in July and N497.97bn in October.
