Rivers govt. chides debt mgt office over ranking state on high indebtedness profile

The Rivers State Government on Monday chided the Debt Management Office over the classification of the state as among the highest ranking indebtedness profile in Nigeria. The state government protested that contrary to media reports, Rivers is not among the highest indebtedness profile on the domestic debt list in Nigeria

Media publications from the report released by the Debt Management Office had classified Lagos, Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers States as the highest indebted state governments in the country.

Rivers State was identified to be on third position on the domestic debt profile with N225.59 billion which was noted to be 5.58% of Nigeria’s sub-national domestic debt.

However, Rivers State Government had described the publications as the handiwork of detractors to malign the integrity of the Governor Nyesom Wike administration.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Paulinus Nsirim, had argued that the issues of debts owed to contractors and pension arrears raised by the Debt Management Office are recurrent and capital expenditures for which payments are ongoing. He maintained that such financial responsibilities cannot be given the status of indebtedness as if they are loans procured by the state government.