From N1.75trn to N1.80trn, Southwest States Owe 4.4trn for both Domestic and External debts

In February, 2024, PIJAlance analysed that Southwest States owe N1.75trn domestic debts. Between February to June, southwest six States have added N5trn, making N1.80trn to its domestic debts. Yet, its external debts remain humongous.

The cost of governance has always been the bone of contention in Nigeria’s system of government. Especially, when discussing debts. In 2023, aggregate results gotten from the Debt Management Office (DMO), an organ of Nigerian Government that manages debts of Federal Government of Nigeria and States, out of the 36 states listed, Southwest six States; Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Lagos, Ekiti and Ondo, have N4.4trn debts they have not serviced since 2023.

The document is the latest from the DMO database dated back to year ended December 31, 2023 debts of States. When the debts were divided into two individual pair; external and domestic debts, the six southwest states have the aggregate of 1.80 trillion naira domestic debts while its external debts are 1.7 billion dollar with the equivalent to Nigeria’s 2.6 trillion naira. This was the breakdown that gave the sum of 4.4 trillion naira debts.

For the external debts, the dollar increment from 2023 to 2024 has given rise to the exponential debts toll. For example, last year when the dollar was still around 700 to 715 at the black market rate in naira, external debts of the southwest states ought to be, when calculated, 1.2 trillion naira. However, the rise of the dollar against the naira counterpart, has in every way affected the rate, leaving about over 1 trillion added to the existing debts when calculated at the current parallel rate of 1500/1.

The 2.6 trillion external debts were moreover, not gotten from a source. According to the document obtained from the DMO, China Exim Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), INDIA, KFW Development Bank in Germany, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Saudi Arabia and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) in France. These are the bilateral debts sources for Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos excluding Ekiti State which didn’t take a bilateral loan but took multilateral loan alongside other five States.

Ogun bilateral and multilateral external debts stand at 168.8 million dollar equivalent to 253.2 billion naira. It has also 278.6 billion naira domestic debts. Ondo’s own stands at 80.2 million dollar with its naira equivalent 120.3 billion while its domestic debts remain 1.5 billion naira.

Osun domestic debt is 144.6 billion naira while its multilateral and bilateral debts as 87.2 million dollar with its naira equivalent 130 8 billion naira. Oyo is the third highest in domestic debts with 159.9 billion naira debt. This remains while its external debts 63.8 million dollar equivalent of 95.7 billion naira. Ekiti did not take a bilateral loan but its multilateral external debts stand at 121 million dollar. The naira equivalent is 181.5 billion naira. Its domestic debt too stands at 110 billion naira.

Only Lagos toppled all the southwest states with 1.2 billion dollar multilateral and bilateral external debts and over 1 trillion naira domestic debt. The 1.2 billion dollar external debt is currently equivalent to about 1.8 trillion naira external debts, making Lagos alone owing about 2.8 trillion naira debts. This is about average of the total southwest states 4.4 trillion naira debts in 2023.

Read Also: SW States, with ₦1.75trn debts, Intend to Spend ₦214.7bn on Governors’ Offices

Enoch Oyedibu

Brazen Investigative Journalist with a deep interest for tracking the grassroots impacts of government procurement.