Kano gov’t settles over ₦63bn debts incurred by Ganduje
The Kano State Debt Management Office says it has successfully serviced a total of N63,508,024,580.03 in both foreign and domestic debts incurred by the Abdullahi Umar Ganduje led administration.
Hamisu Sadi Ali, the Director General of the Kano State Debt Management Office, made this known during a briefing with journalists about the state’s debt situation.
He emphasised that although the current administration inherited a substantial debt load, it has significantly reduced the financial burden, noting that no new debts have been incurred by the present government.
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He said, “Let me reiterate that, as the person in charge of the entire state’s debt portfolios, since the inception of Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf’s NNPP administration from 29th May, 2023 to date, no single penny was signed, contracted or received by the Kano State Government within or outside the country as a loan.
“It is important and worthy to note that, in his efforts to reduce the debt burden of our dear state, His Excellency the Executive Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf had paid an external debt of about N3,491,137,226.73 and domestic debts of N60,016,887,353.57 totalling N63,508,024,580.03 for just first and second quarter of 2024.
“With this development, our overall debts outstanding was drastically reduced to N127,793,608,048.62 for both domestic and foreign liabilities.”
Dr Ali added that the Kano State Public Debt Management Law 2021 clearly states that the State Debt Management Office shall “subject to the provision of the act, borrowed on behalf of the Government, from any individual or institutional bodies.”
“Let me clearly restate this, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje led APC administration signed a subsidiary loan agreement for the Third National Urban Water Sector Reform Project of about 64 million Euros with the French Development Agency in July 2018.
“It is important to note that the current debt portfolios of Kano State from foreign loans are Multi-state Road Project 11/11/1992 XDR 26,212,376.50; Malaria Control Booster Project 10/10/2007 XDR 11,550,000; State Education Sector Project 6/11/2008 XDR 9,991,875; Third National Fadama Project 16/07/2009 XDR 4,818,310.00 and Health System Development Project II 08/04/2009 XDR 2,313,697.80.
“Others are Commercial Agriculture Development Project 16/07/2009 XDR 17,670,000.00; Malaria Control Booster Project (Additional F.) 21/06/2010 XDR 5,927,445.10; Erosion and Watershed Management Project N/A USD 5,000,000.00; Kano State Agro Processing, Productivity, Enhancement P. N/A USD 36,847,000.00; Third National Urban Water Sector Reform Jul 2018 EUR 64,000,000.00 and Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing P. N/A EUR 3,500,000.00.
“It is pertinent to note that in the history of our dear state, no government had ever borrowed a single penny from any domestic lender like commercial banks, except Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s APC led administration that contracted and signed 6 different loans from various commercial banks.
“These include Infrastructure Loan and Excess Crude Account (ECA) Nov-15 10,000,000,000 Access Bank; Salary Bail-out Nov-15 20,000,000,000 Fidelity Bank and Budget Support – 17,569,000,000,” he added.
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