REVEALED: 13 new governors borrowed N226bn in six months

No fewer than 13 new state governors collectively borrowed N226.8bn from domestic and external financiers in the first six months after taking office, according to an analysis of the latest sub-national debt reports released by the DMO.

The external debt was calculated based on the exchange rate of N889/$ used by the Debt Management Office in its report.

The sub-national debts are classified into domestic borrowings from local creditors and external borrowings from international creditors like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The domestic and external debts published on the DMO’s website were as of December 30 and June 30, 2023, respectively.

Breakdown of the States below:

Benue, Cross Rivers, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Zamfara, and the Federal Capital Territory, got N115.57bn from domestic creditors, while governors of Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara borrowed $125.1m (N111.24bn) from external sources.

For the sub-nationals, a further breakdown of the data showed that Cross Rivers Governor, Bassey Otu, took the highest loan, with N16.2bn from domestic and $57.95m from foreign creditors between June and December 2023.

Katsina followed with the debt surging by N36.93bn from N62.37bn to N99.3bn by December 2023.

Third on the list is Niger, with a domestic debt of N17.85bn, surging from N121.95bn in June 2023 to N139.8bn by December of the same year.

Plateau got N16.32bn; Rivers borrowed N7.07bn; Zamfara, N14.26bn; and the FCT under the leadership of Nyesom Wike borrowed N6.75bn from domestic creditors.

For foreign debt, Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi accumulated external debt of $37.54m, while Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna borrowed $17.69m from external financiers.

Similarly, the governors of Kano borrowed $6.6m; Niger, $1.27m; Plateau, $831,008; Sokoto, $499,472; Taraba, $1.51m; and Zamfara, $655,563, from external sources.

• Additional details extracted from Sunday PUNCH