Debts of All 36 States Rise by 163 Percent or N3.34 Trillion to N5.39 trillion Between 2014 and 2019

Debts continue to rise across the 36 states of the Federation, according to a recent report by BudgIT, a public sector-focused financial information house.

In the just released 2020 edition of its annual state of states report titled, “Fiscal Sustainability and Epidemic Preparedness Financing at the State Level”, BudgIT said debts rose by 162.87 percent or N3.34 trillion from N2.05 trillion in 2014 to N5.39 trillion in 2019 across the 36 states.

The report stated that 10 of the states incurred half or N1.68 trillion of the entire debt, adding that seven of the 10 states are from the South while three are from the North.

Speaking on how states can attain fiscal sustainability, Damilola Ogundipe, BudgIT’s Communications Lead, said: “States need to grow their Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, as options for borrowing are reduced due to debt ceilings put in place by the Federal Government to prevent states from slipping into debt crisis. There has to be a shift from the culture of states’ overdependence on Federation Account Allocation Commission, FAAC.”

The report further stated that 13 states, including Lagos, Oyo, Kogi and others, were unable to fund their recurrent expenditure together with debt repayments due in 2019.

It stated: “From our 2020 State of States analysis, 13 states were unable to fund their recurrent expenditure obligations together with their loan repayment schedules due in 2019 with their respective total revenues. 

“The worst hit of these 13 states are – Lagos, Oyo, Kogi, Osun and Ekiti states while the other states on this pendulum are Plateau, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Cross River, Benue, Taraba and Abia. 

“Furthermore, of the remaining 23 states that can meet recurrent expenditure and loan repayment schedules with their total revenue, eight of those states had really low (less than N6 billion) excess revenue, that they had to borrow heavily to fund their capital projects. 

“The worst hit are Zamfara, Ondo and Kwara who had N782.45 million, N788.22 million and N1.48 billion left, respectively. 

“Based on their fiscal analysis, only five states – Rivers, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi and Kebbi states – prioritised capital expenditure over recurrent obligations, while 31 states prioritised recurrent expenditure according to their 2019 financial statements.”