Kwara Governor Abdulfatah
Kwara
Kwara Governor Abdulfatah
Kwara Debt Profile Stands at N30.2bn
The Kwara State Government has clarified that contrary to
speculation in the social media, the state’s current debt profile
stands at N30.2 billion with a monthly repayment of N496m.
According to the State Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola
Banu, the debt stood at N31,481,082,712.95 in 2017 and
N30,751,665,421.83 at the end of 2018, contrary to rumours and
speculation of N50.2b.
Giving a breakdown of the current indebtedness, Banu explained
that the N30.2b includes N15,325,541,483.03 as the balance of the
Federal Government restructured loan, N4,002,948,667.07 as salary
bail out, excess crude account loan outstanding of
N9,324,613,607.52 and vehicle loan balance of N128,916,612.87.
Others are the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) and
Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) Agriculture Scheme with respective
balances of N646,213,285.03 and N679,233,857.13 as well as
International Aviation College loan balance of N96,165,095.64.
While clarifying that the repayment of N496,367,109.08 is
deducted from the state’s monthly federal allocation, Banu added
that the figure includes a monthly deduction of N39,632,016.56 as
repayment for foreign loans obtained by the government in the
1970s.
Giving a further breakdown, Alhaji Banu explained that the
federal government restructured the state government’s short- and
long-term bank loans to reduce monthly repayment, while the state
also benefitted from a N5b salary bailout loan in 2015.
Additionally, the commissioner stated that the excess crude
account loans were federal government-backed bank facilities which
served as seed money for the Kwara State Infrastructure Development
Fund (IF-K) and payment for ongoing projects in the state while
CACS and ABP are state-government guaranteed Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) loans to farmers in the state.