- Lagos leads with N877.04bn, Delta N272bn, Ogun, N241.78bn
BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
As at the end of third quarter in 2022, the states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory have more than N5.36 trillion debts in their kitty.
Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial capital is the largest debtor with about N877.04 billion, representing 16.4 percent of total debt stock of the Sun-nationals as at September 30, 2022.
Oil rich Delta State occupied the second place on the top five tables of debtor states in the review period with N272.61 billion while Ogun State, a neighbouring state with Lagos owes about N241.78 billion.
The current state of indebtedness of Rivers State is not known as the figure made available by the Debt Management Office stood at about N225.51 billion which was its debt position as at September 30, 2021. Meanwhile, Akwa Ibom occupied the fifth position on the debtor’s chart with about N219.62 billion as at September 30, 2022.
Other sub-nationals on the debt list are Abia, N104.57 billion; Adamawa, N122.48 billion; Anambra, N75.7 billion; Bauchi, N144.28 billion; Bayelsa, N151.16 billion; Benue, N143.37 billion; Borno, N96.33 billion; and Cross –River, N175.2 billion.
Ebonyi State ranked among the least indebted states in the review period with N67.06 billion while Jigawa was the least indebted with about N44.41 billion.
Other sub-nationals with debt portfolio below the N100 billion mark in the review period include Enugu, N89.88 billion; Kaduna, N86.86 billion; Katsina, N62.37 billion; Kebbi, N60.13 billion; Kogi State, N90.16 billion, Nasarawa State, N72.63 billion; Niger, N98.26 billion. Sokoto State, Taraba and Yobe completes the list of least indebted states with N85.58 billion, N90.81 billion and N92.86 billion respectively.
The states that carry more than N100 billion but below N200 billion on their debt portfolio include Zamfara State with N109.69 billion; Oyo State, N160.07 billion; Plateau, N151.90 billion; Osun State, N149.41 billion; Kwara, N109.55 billion and Gombe, N139.10 billion.
