Lagos, Edo, Kaduna and Cross River states owe more than half the debts owed by the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory as of December 31, 2018, latest data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) has revealed.
The four states owed $2.12bn (50.08 per cent) out of the $4.23bn sub-national governments according to the report published on DMO’s website.
Lagos tops the list with a foreign debt portfolio of $1.43bn (33.81 per cent), followed by Edo with $276.25m (6.53 per cent) while Kaduna with a foreign debt portfolio of $227.25m representing 5.37 per cent occupies the third petitions.
Cross River State completes the list of the top four on the foreign debt with a portfolio of $188.77m representing 4.46 per cent of the sub-national foreign debt portfolio.
Foreign debts owed by other States include Bauchi ($133.93m); Enugu ($126.18m); Anambra (107.04m); Ekiti ($106.21m); Oyo ($105m); Ogun ($103.26m); Osun ($99.08m); Abia (98.58m) and Adamawa ($97.79m).
Consequently, sub-national governments held 16.74 per cent of the country’s external debt of $25.27bn as of December 2018 with the Federal Government having a total external debt portfolio of $21.04bn representing 83.26 per cent.
Lagos occupies the most indebted state in the domestic category with a total domestic debt portfolio of N530.24bn.
It is trailed by Delta and Rivers states with domestic debt portfolios of N228.81bn and N225.59m, respectively.
Other highly indebted sub-national governments (in terms of domestic debts) include Cross River N167.96bn; FCT N164.25bn; Ekiti N118.01m; Kano N117.08bn; Plateau N100.37bn and Imo N98.78bn.