These states debt burden worsen under their governors

Six states, including Osun and Oyo states local debt burden worsen under their various current governors, growing their local debt profile by about 49% and above using their compounded annual growth rate, CAGR.

According to a report containing local and foreign debt profile for the Federal and State governments for the period ended June 30th, 2017 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Osun State’s debt has risen from N5.4 billion in 2011 to N147 billion as at June 30th 2017.

ALSO SEE: Nigeria’s foreign debt increases by 40% under Buhari

This represents a compounded annual growth rate of about 73% annually. The person at the center of this borrowing is the State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

He has been the governor of the state since November 2010 and has another year before he leaves office. At this rate he might end of with a debt of over N200 billion.

Next up is Oyo state with about N115.8 billion and was about N4.8 billion as at 2011, representing an annualized growth rate of about 70%.

The Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, is another Governor at the tail end of his second term. With a domestic debt of over N115 billion the governor is likely to leave his state in a worse debt profile than it was when he met it.

The third on the list is war torn Borno State with a total local debt profile of N30.9 billion as at June 2016. This represents a CAGR of about 62% for a state that is grappling with the activities of Boko Haram and has received major funding from the Federal Government in the form of North East Development Commission. Again, at the helm is a two term Governor, Kashim Shettima.

Nasarawa State is also on the list having grown its debt by 49% compounded annually to about N59 billion. The governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura is currently in his second term and basically led the charge to grow the states debt when he took office in 2013.

The list also includes other states that do not necessarily have two term governors but have seen their debt increase annualized by about 49% and above. In general, states have seen their debt grow from about N1.2 trillion to over N3 trillion at a compounded annual growth rate of 16%.