Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, on Thursday, disclosed that the debt profile of the State is N103billion and not N410 billion being falsely spread by the opposition.
He said this while addressing teachers under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), at the Governor’s Office to mark the 2017 World Teachers Day celebration.
The governor explained to the teachers that the debt profile of the state was N70 billion which included the N48.9 billion his government inherited from the immediate past administration of Chief Gbenga Daniel and a foreign loan of N40 billion inherited since the days of the first civilian governor of the state, late Chief Bisi Onabanjo.
Tribune Online recalled that an opposition party in the state had alleged that the debt profile of the State stood at N410bn, hence wrote a petition to the National Assembly not to grant the loan request of a $350 million sought for through the World Bank.
He said the state had been ranked among the best for its financal management, saying “it is rational to obtain loan at one per cent interest rate.
Amosun said further said that his administration could not access more than 10 per cent approved by the World Bank but that his successor in office would access the rest for the development of the state.
His words: “Clearly, the State’s debt is N 103 billion, including foreign and local. Even I didn’t take the foreign loan which is about 40 billion, our forebears did.”
“If those ones are grants with 0.5 percent interest, they are just like ‘dash’, when people are shouting that we are taking loans, World Bank is not stupid, what they probably have is $1 billion and they are giving Ogun State alone 35 per cent of that, $350 million dollars at one percent or 1.5 percent.
“We are taking that money (loan) because of the love we have for Ogun State, if not, I would have stopped the loan because of these talks (speculations). At best, we will be given 10 percent next year because World Bank has procedures.
“Officially, Ogun State is owing little over N70 billion, the one that is local that can be ascribed to this administration. How can anybody that is rational will see a loan of 1 percent interest and will not take it?” the governor added.