Lagos, Osun top debtors’ list as states lose N62.1bn to debt repayment

The 36 states together forfeited N62,108,594, 857.48 due to them from the federation account to various forms of debt payments and other deductions in the first two months of 2019.

Lagos tops the list, paying N5.90 billion for the two months followed by Osun with N4.84 billion.

Cross Rivers follows with N3,097,740,708.24 while Bayelsa’s allocation was depleted by N3,094,630,684.46 for the two months.

Yobe paid the least of the 36 states, losing N248,598,960.31 followed by Anambra with N281,695,824.68

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed N660.37bn to the three tiers of government in February 2019 from the revenue generated in January 2019.

Of the sum, the Federal Government received N275.33bn, states received a total of N182.17bn and Local Governments received N136.88bn while oil producing states got N48.49bn as 13% derivation fund.

Revenue generating agencies such as Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) received N5.66bn, N7.62bn and N4.07bn respectively as cost of revenue collections.

For February, FAAC disbursed N619.86bn to the three tiers of government.

The Federal Government received a total of N257.68bn from the N619.85bn. States received a total of N169.93bn and Local Governments received N127.72bn while oil producing states shared N50.95bn as 13% derivation fund.

Revenue generating agencies such as Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) received N3.91bn, N6.49bn and N3.19bn respectively as cost of revenue collections.

The almost 30 categories of debts owned by states that are deducted at source are foreign debt, AMCON loan, bond issuance, CBN Power Intervention Funds, commercial agric credit schemes, contractual obligation, counterpart fund contribution to UBEC, World Bank/European Union donor project.

There is also counterpart fund to MDGs project, excess crude account loan facility to states, CBN MSMEs development fund, salary bailout, Urban Flood management project, loan to provide security to all public schools, agric technological support, FADAMA project, 1% statutory contribution to fund police reform programme among others.

The repayment figures, however, show a downward trend in how much states are spending to service their debt when compared to 2018.

For instance, details of deductions for July 2018 shared in August of the year showed that the states forfeited N63.5 billion to debt payments and other deductions in that month alone.

• Tax ‘Armageddon’ beckons as VAIDS period ends

From the January 2019 revenue allocation, which was shared in February, total gross allocation from federation account to the three tiers of government was N230,656,525,636.20 while net allocation came down to N201,951,103,892.99.

Total deductions for the month amounted to N27,705,421,743.21 made up of N3,140,306,687.84 external debt, N6,943,149,504.63 contractual obligations and N17,621,965,550.74 other

For February allocation that was shared in March, total deductions amounted to N34,403,173,114.27 broken down into external debt of N3,140,683,211.29 while N6,649,771,520.30 and N17,505,532,268.56 were deducted to service contractual obligations and other deductions respectively.

According to Debt Management Office (DMO), the Federation’s total public debts stood at N24.387 trillion or USD79.437 billion as at December 31, 2018, representing a year-on-year growth of 12.25 percent.

Of the amount, Federal Government’s foreign debt stood at N6.460 trillion while domestic debts was N12.774 trillion.

For states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), total foreign debts stood at N1.298 trillion while domestic debts amounted to N3.853 trillion.