Based on the analysis of data obtained from the Debt Management Office of Nigeria, Lagos state, Nigeria’s economic hub leads other states in the country in debt per population as Nigeria’s total debt profile increased further in the first quarter of 2021 to N33.11 trillion.
The 36 states of the federation plus the federal capital territory has a cumulative domestic debt stock of N4.12 trillion and external debt of N1.95 trillion, summing up to at least N6.07 trillion as of March 2021.
The total debt of Lagos State as of the review period stood at N1.08 trillion, accounting for 17.8 percent of the total debt. Its population is estimated at 13.18 million, hereby printing a debt per population of N82,118.
Being the economic centre of the country, it also attracted the highest foreign inflows in the first quarter of 2021, dwarfing others significantly after receiving $1.58 billion in capital inflows.
Bayelsa State’s total debt profile stood at N168.67 billion as of March 2021. With an estimated population of 2.39 million the state’s debt per population stands at N70,518.
Despite being an oil-producing state in Nigeria, Bayelsa still ranks second on the list of states with the highest debt per population, while it was unable to attract any foreign investment in the first quarter of 2021.
A cursory look at the data also shows that Bayelsa did not receive any foreign inflows in 2019 and 2020 either, a signal of how foreign investors perceive the economy of the state.
In terms of IGR, Bayelsa generated a sum of N128.58 billion in the year 2020, 90.5 percent of which was received from the federal account either as statutory allocations or 13 percent oil derivatives.
Cross River State ranks third in the list of states with the highest debts per population at N59,365, with a total debt profile of N241 billion and an estimated population of 4.06 million people.
