News reaching ViewPointNigeria from the Debt Management Office (DMO) indicates that Plateau is one of the three states in the federation with the lowest external debt (as at December 2012). The external debt of the state was estimated to stand at $21.934 million (i.e., approx. N3.487 billion) as at December 31 2012 -this very modest and impressive debt profile was the third lowest in the country. It presents something for Plateau people to be proud about, because the state government has been able to manage the meagre state funds judiciously and has not gone to seek stupendous loans to cover the high security payments to STF members in the state.

News reaching ViewPointNigeria from the Debt Management Office (DMO) indicates that Plateau is one of the three states in the federation with the lowest external debt (as at December 2012). The external debt of the state was estimated to stand at $21.934 million (i.e., approx. N3.487 billion) as at December 31 2012 -this very modest and impressive debt profile was the third lowest in the country. It presents something for Plateau people to be proud about, because the state government has been able to manage the meagre state funds judiciously and has not gone to seek stupendous loans to cover the high security payments to STF members in the state.

The only other states with better external debt figures were Borno and Delta states -Borno state had the lowest, at $14.154 million (approx. N2.250 billion), whilst Delta state followed closely with $18.997 million (approx. N3.020 billion). The low debt burden of Delta state is hardly surprising given the high oil revenue generation capacity of the state, however those of Borno and Plateau state have surprised many analyst/observers given that expenditure on security have been very high in both states because of Boko haram insurgency and religious/ethnic crisis.

States with the highest debt burdens include : Lagos, Kaduna and Cross river states. Lagos leads with an external debt of $611.253 million (about N97.189 billion), followed by Kaduna State which owes $215.683 million (about N34.293 billion) and Cross River State with a debt burden of $113.034 million (about N17.972 billion).

The external debt stock of the nation’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as at December, 31, 2012 was approximately $2.384 billion (about N379.056 billion), according to figures release by the debt management office (DMO). The figures showed that Abia State’s debt stood at $35.911 million; Adamawa State, $30.225 million; Akwa Ibom State, $61.664 million; Anambra State, $26.708 million; Bauchi State, $67.131 million; Bayelsa State, $28.002 million; Benue State, $28.420 million; Ebonyi State, $41.581 million; Edo State, $42.741 million; Ekiti State, $36.165 million; Enugu State, $50.074 million; Gombe State, $31.727 million; Imo State, $51.973 million; and Jigawa State, $33.669 million.
Commenting on the rising debt profile of the states, analysts at FBN Capital said, “enterprising states like Lagos are able to justify their levels of leverage by the extent of their infrastructural development, income generating capacity and large population size. However, a few other states there was a disconnect between their respective debt levels and delivered capital projects.” They also faulted the basis of rising external debts of oil rich states, particularly those that do not have large capital projects to show as evidence of expenditure of the loans they collected.

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Plateau state has one of the lowest external debts in Nigeria