The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said the Akwa Ibom State’s debt profile rose to N179 billion at the end of the first half of 2018 (HI’ 18).
By this report released by the bureau on Thursday, Akwa Ibom occupies the fourth position of the most indebted states in the country.
In the report, NBS said Lagos State recorded the highest domestic debt stock at N517 billion or 17 percent of the total debt stock of states, followed by Delta (N223 billion), Rivers (N191 billion) and Osun (N136 billion), making up the top five indebted states.
The states with lowest debts are: Anambra (N2.6 billion), Sokoto (N25 billion), Yobe (N27 billion), Kastina (N31 billion), while Ebonyi and Jigawa States have N34 billion each.
These figures form part of Nigeria’s foreign debt of $22.08 billion at the end of the first half of this year, representing a 17 percent rise over the $18.9 billion recorded at the end of 2017.
A breakdown shows that foreign borrowings amounting to $10.88 billion were from multilateral agencies, $274.98 million from bilateral (AFD) and another $2.12 billion bilateral from the Exim Bank of China, JICA, India and KFW, while $8.80 billion was commercial debt, according to NBS foreign and domestic debt report for the second quarter 2018 (Q2’18).
The report also shows that Lagos State has the highest foreign debt profile among the 36 states and the FCT accounting for 34.17 percent while Edo (6.57 percent) and Kaduna (5.48 percent) were on the top three most indebted states.
Recall that the Debt Management Office (DMO), last week, stated that the domestic debt stock of the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) stood at N3.5 trillion as at the first half of 2018 (H1’18), which was six percent over the N3.3 trillion recorded at the end of December 2017.
