No fewer than 20 states of the federation borrowed about N458bn in the first half of 2025, findings by Saturday PUNCH have revealed.This comes against the backdrop of a soaring external debt servicing burden gripping state governments.Collectively, the states spent about N235.58bn on servicing external debt within the period, representing a sharp rise of N95.65bn or 68.4 per cent when compared with the N139.92bn recorded in the corresponding half of 2024.
Leading the pack is Oyo State, which took a N93.4bn domestic loan, followed by Kaduna and Lagos, which took N62bn (foreign) and N50bn (domestic) loans, respectively.
States that took foreign loans include Gombe (N20.3bn), Zamfara (N28bn), Katsina (N20.7bn), Kebbi (N7.4bn) and Jigawa (N10.98bn).
While Bauchi took both domestic and foreign loans totalling N26.3bn, Borno, Taraba, Sokoto, Niger, Kwara, and Ekiti borrowed N18.2bn, N18.7bn, N15bn, N25.8bn, N2.18bn and N19.8bn respectively in foreign loans.
The foreign loan list also includes Ondo (N5.6bn), Abia (N7bn), Ebonyi (N10.9bn) and Enugu (N10.7bn).
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