The Debt Management Office (DMO) has put the total indebtedness of the 36 states of the federation at N5.281 trillion at the end of the second quarter this year with Lagos State topping the chart with N797.304 billion.
The latest statistics released by the Office on the subnational governments’ debt stock showed that Delta, Ogun and Rivers states followed Lagos with N378.878 billion, N241.782 billion and N225.505 billion respectively.
Other states and their debt stock based on the DMO figures are Imo, N210.394 billion; Akwa Ibom, N203.951 billion; Cross River, N 176.086 billion; Oyo, N159.906 billion; Ogun, N150.529 billion; Bayelsa, N150.430 billion; Plateau, N144.608 billion; Benue, N143.547 billion; Bauchi, N129.207 billion; Kano, N125.186 billion; and Gombe, N123.608 billion.
A further analysis of the report showed that Ekiti owed 119.543 billion; Edo, N112.118 billion; Kwara, N110.512 billion; Abia N107.612 billion; Borno, N102.496 billion; Kogi N90.538 billion; Enugu, N89.887 billion; Niger, N80.919 billion, and the Federal Capital Territory owed N75.783 billion.
In addition, the DMO reported that in the period under review, Ondo owed N62.270 billion; Kastina N66. 675 billion; Anambra N72.429 billion; Nassarawa, N72.965 billion; Kaduna N78.194 billion; Sokoto N89.920 billion; Taraba N90.807 billion; and Yobe with N96.624 billion.
The report indicated that Jigawa had the least debt stock of N45.135 billion, followed by Ebonyi and Kebbi States with N59.171 billion and N60.417 billion respectively
The DMO reported that the debt figures of Rivers and Katsina were as at September 2021 and December 31 2021, respectively, thereby raising concerns that the states’ debt figures could be more as at the end of Q2 2022.
Meanwhile, the Office reported early this week that the nation’s public debt rose to N42.84 trillion (USD103.31 billion) as at June 30, 2022, representing N1.24 trillion increase over the debt stock as at the end of Q1 2022, which then totalled N41.60 trillion ($200.07 billion).
