The Akwa Ibom State government owed
commercial banks N64.5 billion when Udom
Emmanuel took over from Godswill Akpabio as
governor, the state Commissioner for Finance,
Akan Okon, has said.
Mr. Okon who spoke, Wednesday, in Uyo during a
conversation on #ProsperityWithoutOil, organised
by the Independent Newspaper Publishers
Association, said the state government decided to
restructure the debt into federal government bond
so as to lessen the burden of servicing it.
“The loan was to be repaid within a period of
three years, and the debt servicing obligation was
in the region of N3.5 billion every month.
“Given what is on ground now, if we receive N7
billion monthly and pay out N3.5 billion, what is
left won’t even be enough to do anything,” Mr.
Okon said, adding that Akwa Ibom’s monthly
revenue from the federation account in the last 10
months wasn’t up to one-sixth of what it used to
receive some two to four years ago.
He said the window provided by the federal
government bond allowed the state to pay back
the loan in 20 years.
Even at that, Mr. Okon said, “Our cost profile
today is much higher than five years ago when
we used to receive between N25 billion to N30
billion (monthly)”.
“But we are able to use it and the Internally
Generated Revenue (IGR) to make sure that
workers salaries are paid.”
Both Mr. Okon and Mr. Emmanuel had served in
Mr. Akpabio’s government, though briefly. Mr.
Okon was finance commissioner, while Mr.
Emmanuel was the secretary to the state
government.
Foramfera
The focus of the present administration, according
to Mr. Okon is to block leakages, shore up the
IGR, and pull the state economy away from being
dependent on oil money.
“We are blessed with very arable lands that we
could grow agricultural products year in, year out.
Take for example, the price of crude oil is $40 per
barrel, and the price of palm oil is $90 per barrel
as we speak today.
“Akwa Ibom in years past used to occupy fourth
position, nationwide, in cocoa production.
“The government is today doing everything to
encourage cocoa farmers to increase the area
under cultivation, because we believe we can earn
foreign exchange in this area,” the finance
commissioner said.
The commissioner also responded to public
criticism against bank loans so far collected by
the current administration.
“I don’t know why we are afraid of loans. It is
important we think outside the box. There is no
money as it used to be before. Salaries take 70
per cent of the state’s monthly allocations from
federation account.
“We need money for road construction and other
projects. Even in the United States, government
takes loans to finance government businesses.”


www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/202681-former-gov-akpabio-left-n64-5-billion-debt-akwa-ibom-commissioner.html

cc:lalasticlala

I don die
Even PDP dey blame PDP.
Buhari abeg continue to blame jona joor.
“We are blessed with very arable lands that we
could grow agricultural products year in, year out.
Take for example, the price of crude oil is $40 per
barrel, and the price of palm oil is $90 per barrel
Imaging red oil cost pass fuel sef.

G

All these politicians mortgaging our future