The Kaduna State Government has said that its local and external debt profile stands at N60.82 billion as at November 2014.
The Commissioner for Economic Planning, Mr Madami Garba, disclosed this in Kaduna while giving a breakdown of the 2015 budget for the state.
Madami said the state’s total external debt stood at N31.81 billion, while N17. 83 billion was owed local contractors; N3.48 billion secured from commercial banks and N1.4 billion from the capital market.
According to him, the state government is able to settle N24.56 billion from January to November 2014 out of its previous debt profile of N85.39 billion.
He said N10.41 billion was paid to commercial banks; N1.4 billion for bond; N12.11 billion to local contractors while N639.57 million went to external debt servicing.
In a remark, the Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Samaila Aliyu, said the huge debt profile was not part of the debt relief obtained by Nigeria from London and Paris Clubs during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
“They are loans obtained from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, International Development Bank and Africa Development Bank.
“Over the years, subsequent administrations in the state continued to borrow from these financial institutions for infrastructure development projects and it amounted to 185, 964, 750.26 dollars.”
The commissioner assured the people of the state that the administration was committed to paying off all its debt within the shortest possible time, to enable it to conserve funds for development.
The News Aency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the huge debt profile of the state is part of campaign issues, with opposition politicians demanding to know what the monies were used for. (NAN)
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