AKWA IBOM IS 3RD HIGHEST DOMESTIC DEBTOR, AS NIGERIA’S DEBT GROWS BY 40% UNDER BUHARI (NBS)

AKWA IBOM DEBT: Despite recent years of overwhelming increase in allocation to Akwa Ibom State, past government administrations went ahead to take loans. Although the present government, of Udom Emmanuel, has taken measures to keep from taking loans and collecting Federal Government bailouts, the State still holds the ugly record of 3rd highest debtor to domestic creditors in Nigeria

Akwa Ibom’s debt accounts for 5.18 percent of total domestic debts owed by Nigerian states. Lagos owes 10.39 % while Delta owes 8.04% and FCT 5.09%. This record was released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. Cross River State, known for taking humongous amounts in loan during the Donald Duke administration, does not even come in among top 5 states owing domestic loans, although they are 4th on the list of states owing foreign debts.

The administration of Godswill Akpabio has been fingered by past top government officials of Akwa Ibom State for being responsible for most of the debt of Akwa Ibom. His adminstration is said to have taken bogus loans when the state had no need for them, with which he funded his widely castigated ‘Uncommon transformation’ campaign.

Most of the projects which the ex-Governor (now) Senator Akpabio borrowed for, lie yet uncompleted: the Ibom Tropicana entertainment resort, the Ibom Specialty hospital, the Akpabio international stadium and others.

Although he holds the record of the administration that built the most infrastructure in Akwa Ibom State, roads built by the popularly generous ex-governor were also alleged to be over-estimated by stupendous amounts. The recent release by NBS further strengthen these allegations.

In bid to pay off the not so handsome Akwa Ibom debt, without grounding the state financially, in 2015, the Udom Emmanuel administration announced that the domestic debts of Akwa Ibom – put at nearly 65 Billion Naira – was being restructured into Federal Government bonds to enable the State pay up in installments for up to 20 years.

The NBS report also showed that, under the Buhari administration, Nigeria’s total debt profile has increased by a whopping 40%. Nigeria’s total domestic and foreign debt stocks, as at June 30, stood at around $15.1 billion and N14.1 trillion respectively.

The country owes foreign debt thus: $9.67billion as multilateral debt; $218.25million as bilateral (AFD) and $5.15billion owed to the Exim Bank of China.

Akwa Ibom debt doesn’t rank high, however, as per foreign debts. Lagos, as expected, among the 36 states and the FCT, holds the highest foreign debt profile, responsible for about 37%, followed by Kaduna (6%), Edo (5%), Cross River (4%) and Ogun (3%).