The Commissioner for Finance and Chief Economic Adviser in Ogun State, Dapo Okubadejo has clarified what he called misconceptions surrounding the debt profile of the state, saying the Dapo Abiodun administration inherited N142 billion debt from the previous administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun.
Okubadejo said the state has a high debt profile because it is economically viable to carry the debt burden.
He stated this when the state’s economic team met with newsmen on the breakdown of the 2023 budget in Abeokuta, the state capital.
Our correspondent recalls that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate of the state, Ladi Adebutu had accused the Abiodun – led administration of plunging the state into incurable debt.
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Adebutu alleged that the Abiodun – led administration increased the domestic debt of the state by 55.4 per cent between 2021 and 2022.
According to Adebutu, the domestic debt profile of the state rose from N155.57billion in 2021 to N241.78billion by June 2022.
But, Okubadejo while addressing newsmen insisted that it was wrong for anyone to compare the debt profile of Ogun State to any other state without putting into consideration the economic viability and the capacity of the states.
The commissioner said obtaining a loan was not the problem but if the loan was being put to good use.
Okubadejo who was flanked by the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Olaolu Olabimtan said out of the N142 billion debt inherited from the previous administration, $121 million was foreign debt.
He explained that the increasing exchange rate had worsened the debt profile of the state.
“When we came in 2019, the total debt profile of Ogun State was about N142 billion, the foreign debt component of that was $121 million, just take that $121 million at N450 per dollar today to N220 per dollar in 2019, there is an exchange rate implication on that $121 million debt.
“When we came in 2019, we saw that the pension and gratuity liabilities of the state were not in the books. The liabilities were not booked in the debt profile of the state in 2019,” Okubadejo said.
He argued that the fact that Lagos State has the highest debt profile does not make it a poor state.
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