Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Cross River States are the states with the highest debt profile in the country, according to the latest statistics from the Debt Management Office (DMO).
Data from the DMO also showed that the federal government has spent N606.869 billion to service domestic debts in the third quarter of 2019, ThisDay reports.
Collectively, the leading debtor-states accounted for more than N1.344 trillion of the over N4 trillion domestic debt standing against the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as at September 30, 2019, according to the statistics obtained from DMO website.
Lagos leads the top five with N441,668,732,162.26, Rivers is next with N266,936,225,793.65, while Akwa Ibom, Delta, and Cross River states follow on the debt scale with N237,404,479,750.88; N230,574,799,366.01 and N167,967,705,888.45 respectively.
Apart from the five, Imo (N148,900,627,563.76); Osun (N141,792,935,913.24); Ogun (N140,993,426,875.02); FCT (N137,862,316,926.60), Bayelsa (N127,243,132,172.38 and Kogi (N123,436,748,898.43) are other leading debtor-states.
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On a geopolitical basis, the six South-south states lead with the highest aggregate debt of N1,113,311,886,960.1 followed by the South-west with N957,158,703,679.04.
Next on the geopolitical basis is the North-central (N510,790,349,558.25; North-west, which has the highest number of states in the country (seven) is next with N484, 867,921,659.82 followed by North-east and the five South-east states with N480,890217,532.59 and N357,513,205,096.01 respectively.
Yobe and Anambra States have the least debt burden. While Yobe’s debt stands at N28,533,478,934.83, that of Anambra is N34,007,803,458.86.
Nigeria’s total debt stock (local and foreign) as at September 30, 2019, was N26.2 trillion with the federal government accounting for over N9 trillion of the almost N14 trillion domestic debt stock.
