States Debt Rise To N3.342tr -NEITI…….Lagos, Delta, Akwa Ibom Top Chat With N1.262tr

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says that the debt burden of the thirty six states of the federation has risen to over N3.342 trillion as at 2016.

Lagos, Delta, Osun and Akwa Ibom topped the debt chart with a total debt profile of N1.262 trillion representing about 38% of debts owed by the 36 States of the Federation.

NEITI in an analysis of the break down said that Lagos was indebted to the tune of N603.25 billion, Delta owes N331.95 billion while Osun and Akwa Ibom are indebted to the tune of N165.91 billion and N161.23 billion respectively, as at 2016.

The data, contained in NEITI’s Quarterly Review, focused on Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursements in 2016.

NEITI said its legitimate interest in the debt profiles, revenue generation and management in Nigeria is as a result of the fact that over 70% of the revenues involved are derived from the extractive industry.

The data showed that Yobe and Anambra states have the least debt burden of N11.74 billion and N20.60 billion respectively as at the end of 2016.

The NEITI publication also expressed concern that the total indebtedness of N3.342 trillion by the 36 states represented 55.15 per cent of the 2016 budget of N6.06 trillion and 45.8 per cent of the 2017 budget estimates of about  N7.3 trillion.

On Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), Lagos and Rivers states ranked highest with N301.2 billion and N82.1 billion generated by the respective States in 2016.

Nassarawa State was the least in internal generated revenue with N2.09Billion. This was followed by Ogun, Delta, Kano and Edo states with IGR records of N56.3 billion, N44.9 billion, N34.5 billion, N20.7 billion respectively.