Anambra State Still Paying Old Loans from Past Governors

The Anambra State Government says it is still paying back loans and debts from previous administrations. This includes debts from former governors Peter Obi and Willie Obiano.

Izuchukwu Okafor, the state's Commissioner for Finance, shared this information during a podcast called Ndi Anambra.

A video from the podcast appeared on Anambra State New Media’s Facebook page on Monday. The podcast was hosted by Ejimofor Opara, who is a special assistant to Governor Soludo on new media.

During the podcast, Mr Opara asked why the budget performance reports showed that the Anambra State Government is servicing loans. This is despite claims that it had not borrowed money recently.

In reply, Mr Okafor said that Governor Soludo’s administration has not borrowed any money from commercial banks since it took office. But, the government is still paying off loans taken by previous administrations.

“It’s on record that this administration has not borrowed a kobo from any commercial bank since the inception of this administration,” he stated.

Mr Okafor explained that every month, deductions are taken from the state’s Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAC) funds to service older loans.

“Every month during our FAC meetings, you will notice there were significant deductions from our own FAC because of loans borrowed by previous administrations,” he added.

He mentioned that these loans were taken during the tenures of Mr Obi and the last governor, Willie Obiano.

“These loans were borrowed during the time of Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, among other past governors,” he said.

The finance commissioner also noted that despite not borrowing any new loans, Governor Soludo’s administration has managed to reduce the state’s debt.

“We have been able to manage the state debt very well, that we have brought it down by more than 83 percent as of today. We’ve managed to repay most of these loans,” he explained.

He said the government has also cleared some “legacy debts.” These include unpaid contracts, gratuity arrears, and pension arrears.

“For our domestic debt, we’ve managed to clear all the legacy debts, including unpaid contracts, gratuity arrears, and pension arrears,” he stated.

Mr Okafor mentioned that the state’s domestic debt is currently at a “near-zero balance.”

He added that for external debts, repayments are automatically deducted from federal allocations due to the state. This is part of the terms attached to the loans.

“Before they remit Anambra’s allocation, they will deduct it because of loans from the World Bank and others,” he noted.

The commissioner also mentioned that the state has recently cleared one of its debts.

“This administration has created more by paying off the backlog of numerous debts inherited from previous governments, starting from the time of Peter Obi,” he added.

Mr Obi, who is now the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), was the governor of Anambra State from 2010 to 2014.

There have been disagreements between Mr Obi and Mr Soludo in recent years.

Mr Obi has repeatedly stated that he did not owe anyone when he left office as governor. He even challenged Nigerians to check his claims.

He claimed that when he left office, he left the state with a total of $150 million in Access, defunct Diamond, and Fidelity banks, with an interest rate of at least 6.5 percent.

“If you calculate all of them today, the money invested would be about N60 billion,” Mr Obi said in 2022.