The Gombe State Government at the weekend said its debt profile was N120 billion as against N432 billion being circulated by the “opposition parties.”
The state’s commissioner of Finance and Economic Development, Muhammad Gambo Magaji, released the figures during the breakdown of the N176.01 billion 2023 budget signed into law by Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya on Friday.
He said the figure of N432 billion being peddled as the state debt was false, “because the debt profile of Gombe State is just at about N120 billion and it is verifiable and accessible to everyone who visits the Debt Management Office (DMO).”
He said the state government decided to release the real figures in order to correct the falsehood being spread by the opposition.
Magaji lamented that though Gombe’s debt profile was available on the website of the DMO, some people had continued to spread fake figures.
He stated that though the administration inherited over N124 billion in debt from the previous administration, it was working to reduce the figure and make the state financially viable.
“The current administration has been servicing the huge debt we inherited, and in the 2023 budget, the sum of N18.21 billion, representing 10.35 per cent of the total budget, will be used to service debt,” he said.
The commissioner added that the state government has continued to pay salaries and pensions, in addition to settling the backlog of gratuities owed since 2014.
