A WikkiTimes review of budget performance documents has shown that five Northwestern states with available data for public debt charges spent over N81 billion for debt servicing in 2023. The states are Kano, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna.
Public debt charges are largely interests paid on accumulated debts by states. Experts have argued that these monies hinder development as they gulp billions of naira from the thing pockets of states, monies that could have been used for other developmental purposes.
Further review shows that Northwestern states owe N610.1 billion as domestic debt as of the end of 2023.
Kano owes the highest domestic debt with the sum of N122.3 billion followed by Zamfara with a domestic debt figure of N110.5 billion.
The least domestic debt is that owed by Jigawa. At the end of 2023, Jigawa state owed N42.7 billion as domestic debt.
On the external debt data, the highest debt figure is that owed by Kaduna. According to data from the debt management office, Kaduna state owes $587 million as of the end of 2023. The least external debt in the region is owed by Jigawa at $25 million.
There have been concerns on the overreliance of the region on funding from the federal allocation,a development that usually leads to states relying on loans to survive.
WikkiTimes will host a Twitter space discussion on March 30th, to discuss the way forward for the Northwestern region to tackle overreliance on federal allocation.
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