At least 10 Nigerian states collectively increased their domestic debt by N417.7bn year-on-year, despite a significant rise in revenue allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, a review of official data has shown.
An analysis of the Debt Management Office’s quarterly reports on subnational debt reveals that Rivers, Enugu, Niger, Taraba, Bauchi, Benue, Gombe, Edo, Kwara, and Nasarawa raised their combined debt stock from N884.9bn in Q1 2024 to N1.3tn in Q1 2025.
This represents a 47.2 per cent year-on-year increase, raising questions about fiscal prudence and the long-term sustainability of borrowing at the state level.
The data also shows that the 10 states’ combined domestic debt increased quarter-on-quarter, from N1.26tn in Q4 2024 to N1.30tn in Q1 2025, an additional N42.3bn, representing a 3.4 per cent increase in just three months