By Fola James
Enugu state position in the league of most indebted states in Nigeria has risen with the approval, on Thursday, by the state house of Assembly N15 billion loan request by the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuayi-led administration.
According to figures obtained from the Debt Management office, DMO the state government loan liability has ballooned to over N83 billion from N68 billion, making it one of the highest debtor states among the 36 states in the country. The state currently occupies number 13 position.
The loan request was contained in a letter to the house read by the Speaker, Chief Edward Ubosi, during Thursday’s plenary.
Ubosi said the loan would be used to finance infrastructure development in the state.
He said that government was finding it difficult to finance infrastructural projects due to the current economic challenges.
The speaker said the facility, which would domicile in United Bank for Africa, had 10 years repayment plan of nine per cent per annum, with 12-month moratorium.
Governor Ugwuanyi stated in the letter to the Assembly that the CBN infrastructure finance loan, when accessed would assist in carrying out major infrastructural projects across the state.
Contributing, Mr Paul Nnajiofor, representing Nkanu East, said the loan was not contentious as it would help the state government to fulfil its promise to the people.
Nnajiofor said that he supported the loan, considering that it was tied to the completion of the ongoing projects in the state.
Other lawmakers who spoke said the loan became necessary to enable the current administration to complete ongoing projects and also initiate new ones.
Not a few Nigerians have expressed serious worries over the rising domestic and foreign debt by state governments in the country.
According to the Domestic and Foreign Debt Report 2021 obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS which the domestic debt data for the 36 states of the federation as of March 2021 indicates that the total debt stocks of the 36 states stood at over N4 trillion, with Lagos leading with N507 billion debt, Rivers follows with N377 billion, while Akwa Ibom has N232 billion; Delta is next on the debtors’ list with N213 billion.
The fifth indebted state is Cross River with N162 billion, followed by Ogun with N156 billion; seventh is Bayelsa with N142 billion and then Plateau with N134 billion. Osun is ninth wih N133 billion and Benue is 10th state with N128 billion. The total debt of the 10 states is more than N2 trillion.
The least indebted state is Jigawa State with N31 billion, according to the report.
