The Kwara state government on Tuesday put its current debt profile at N30.2 billion. It added that the debt has a monthly repayment of N496.3 million.

The Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu, said the debt stood at N31.5 billion in 2017 and N30.8 billion at the end of 2018 as opposed to social media speculation of N50.2 billion.

Giving a breakdown of the current indebtedness, Banu explained the N30.2 billion includes N15.3 billion as the balance of the Federal Government restructured loan, N4, 003 billion as salary bail out, excess crude account loan outstanding of N9.3 billion and vehicle loan balance of N128.9 million.

Others are the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) and Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) agriculture scheme with respective balances of N646.2 million and N679.2 million as well as International Aviation College loan balance of N96.1 million.

He clarified the repayment of N496.4 million is deducted from the state’s monthly federal allocation.

Banu added the figure includes a monthly deduction of N39.6 million as repayment for foreign loans obtained by the government in the 1970s.

Giving a further breakdown, Banu explained that the federal government restructured the state government’s short- and long-term bank loans to reduce monthly repayment, while the state also benefited from N5b salary bailout loan in 2015.

The commissioner stated the excess crude account loans were federal government-backed bank facilities, which served as seed money for the Kwara State Infrastructure Development Fund (IF-K) and payment for ongoing projects in the state while CACS and ABP are state-government guaranteed Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loans to farmers in the state.
http://gimmehear.com/kwara-state-in-n30-billion-debt/
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Temi Badmus