Cross River State Owes foreign agencies $188.7m - DMO

Cross River State has been placed  4th  in the federation with the higest debts to foreign agencies with a debt profile of $188.7m representing 4.46 percent, according to statistics released by the Debt Management Office (DMO). Other states which dominate the list include Lagos , Edo and Kaduna.

Analysis of the DMO data show that the four states have combined foreign debt of $ 2 . 12 bn , out of the $ 4 . 23 bn owed by the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory Administration as of December 31 , 2018 .

This means that the four states hold more than half of the foreign debt owed by the sub-national governments . Precisely , the four states owed 50 .08 per cent of the sub -national foreign debt .
Expectedly , Lagos is on top of the list with a foreign debt portfolio of $ 1 .43 bn which represents 33 . 81 per cent of the foreign sub-national debt portfolio .
Lagos is followed by Edo State with a foreign debt portfolio of $ 276 . 25 m representing 6 . 53 per cent of the sub -national foreign debt portfolio .
Following Edo is Kaduna State with a foreign debt portfolio of $ 227 . 25 m representing 5 . 37 per cent of the country ’ s sub -national foreign debt as of December 31st, 2018.

Other top debtors in the foreign debt category include Bauchi $ 133 . 93 m ; Enugu $ 126 .18 m ; Anambra 107 .04 m ; Ekiti $ 106 . 21 m ; Oyo $ 105 m ; Ogun $ 103 . 26 m ; Osun $ 99 .08 m ; Abia 98 .58 m and Adamawa $ 97 . 79 m .
As of December 31 , 2018 , the country ’s total external debt stood at $ 25 . 27 bn . This means that the sub -national governments held 16 . 74 per cent of the country ’s external debt . This leaves the Federal Government with a total external debt portfolio of $ 21 .04 bn representing 83 .26 per cent .
On the domestic scene , Lagos is also the most indebted state of the federation with a total domestic debt portfolio of N530 . 24 bn . It is followed by Delta and Rivers states with domestic debt portfolios of N228 .81 bn and N225 .59 m , respectively.
Other highly indebted sub -national governments (in terms of domestic debts ) include Cross River N167 . 96 bn ; FCT N164 .25 bn ; Ekiti N118 . 01 m ; Kano N117 . 08 bn ; Plateau N100 .37 bn and Imo N98 . 78 bn .

The sub -national governments (the 36 state governments and the FCT administration) owe N3 .85 tn in domestic debt .
This represents 23 . 15 per cent of the country ’ s domestic debt portfolio of N16 . 63 tn , leaving the Federal Government with N12 .77 tn representing 76 .84 per cent of the domestic debt portfolio .