Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) yesterday disclosed that debt burden of the 36 states of the federation had risen to over N3.342 trillion as at 2016.
NEITI stated this in a statement from its Director of Communications, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, in Abuja.
It explained that Lagos, Delta, Osun and Akwa Ibom topped the debt chart with a total debt profile of N1.262 trillion which represents about 38 per cent of the debts owed by the 36 states of the federation.
A further break down of the debt by NEITI showed that Lagos was indebted to the tune of N603.25 billion, while Delta owed N331.95 billion, and Osun and Akwa Ibom had debt of N165.91 billion and N161.23 billion respectively.
NEITI stated that this information was contained in its third quarterly review, a researched publication which focused on Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursements in 2016.
The publication, it noted, had all the relevant facts and data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, FAAC and Debt Management Office (DMO).
It explained that its outcome was consistent with its mandate to monitor fiscal allocation and statutory disbursement of revenues due to the three tiers of government, adding that its legitimate interest in the debt profiles, revenue generation and management in Nigeria was based on the fact that over 70 per cent of revenues involved are derived from the extractive industry.
Also, from the current NEITI quarterly review, states with high debt burden included Benue indebted to the tune of N49.15 billion, Edo – N94.54 billion, Enugu – N57.56 billion, Ekiti – N67.3 billion and Kano – N81.05 billion.
The publication further disclosed that Katsina was indebted to the tune of N30.03 billion while Ogun owes N103.75 billion.
Yobe and Anambra States have the least debt burden of N11.74 billion and N20.60 billion respectively.
With regards to the implications of this on development, the publication expressed concern that the total indebtedness of N3.342 trillion by the 36 states represented 55.15 per cent of the 2016 budget of N6.06 trillion and 45.8 per cent of the 2017 budget estimates of about N7.3 trillion.
On Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), it added that Lagos and Rivers States ranked highest with N301.2 billion and N82.1 billion generated by the respective states in 2016, while Nassarawa State was the least in internal generated revenue with N2.09 billion.
This was followed by Ogun, Delta, Kano and Edo States with IGR records of N56.3 billion, N44.9 billion, N34.5 billion, and N20.7 billion respectively.
The review noted that ratio of IGR to budget was very low in most states except Lagos state that recorded more than 45 per cent of its 2016 budget from IGR.
The review also showed high dependence on revenue from federation account except Lagos and Ogun States that recorded higher IGR than FAAC allocations within the period under review.
Thisday