Latest report by an international statistics firm, StatiSense has shown that Kogi, Katsina states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), up to Bauchi State, top the prestigious list of states with least local debt stock in Nigeria for the year ended 2020, beating other states to it.
A detail of the report that was released on January 1, 2021 showed that Kogi, Katsina and FCT were among the 12 states with lowest debt stock as of September 2020 – in the green zone.
Kogi reduced its debt stock to N59.15billion to top the list of states to achieve this feat in the year 2020.
The research according to the online platform was largely sourced from documents released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) which was further analyzed and made public.
The report showed Kogi State coming first, followed by Kastina, the FCT, Edo, Ekiti, Plateau, Kaduna, Imo, Ebonyi, Bauchi, among other states that also reduced their respective local debt profile as documented by the Debt Management Office (DMO).
States with the least amount of debt are an interesting mix of states geographically.
The report which quoted information from the Debt Management Office (DMO) picked Kogi State as number one on the list with N59.15billion; Katsina, N21.75billion; FCT, N17.94billion; Edo, N17.57billion; Ekiti, N9.84billion; Plateau, N7billion and Kaduna, N6.39billion.
Others are Imo, N6.26billion; Ebonyi, N5.46billion; Bauchi, N5.13billion; Osun, N3.76billion and Cross River, N2.85billion.
The report was however silent on how much each state owes in foreign debt.
The advantage is that states with low debt will have the potential for development and attraction of public-private-partnership projects from local and foreign investors, with an ability to embark on key infrastructure projects.
StatiSense is a data consulting firm with expertise in providing data services such as Analytics, research, reporting, measurement & evaluation and training to individuals, private organisations and non-governmental organisations.
It is a trusted analytics company with a brilliant team of analysts.
In another report, Kogi and the 21 other states on the reduced debt stock list were not enlisted among states with increased domestic debt in the year 2020.
On the other hand, states like Benue, Abia, Anambra and eight others were on the list of states with increased local debt profile for the period under study.
It would be recalled that recently, Kogi and some other states were beneficiaries of a World Bank grant component of the World Bank-assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS).
The Kogi State government has continued to pledge its commitment to continue to implement realistic financial policies that would guarantee prosperity for its people while it remained prudent and transparent in its financial activities and engagements.