Lagos commits 20% to interest payment as total debt hits ₦158 billion

LAGOS state has said that its total debt book is currently at ₦158 billion, of which government has committed ₦31 billion as service cost.

The state Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Rabiu Olowo, revealed this at a media parley in Lagos on Thursday.

The parley was organised to explain Lagos N1.64 trillion 2021 budget tagged “Budget of Rekindled Hope.”

Recalled that the state House of Assembly on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020 passed the budget and it was signed into law by the Governor on De. 31, 2020.

The breakdown of the State budget showed that N702.935 billion was voted for capital budget and N460.587 billion for recurrent expenditure.

At 22% debt to revenue ratio, Dr. Olowo said the debt is sustainable for the state to manage.

Olowo explained that Lagos debt to revenue ratio is below the Federal Government’s benchmark of 30% and World Bank’s benchmark of 40%

Explaining further, he hinted that the state government planned to finance the N192.494 billion budget deficit through external sources, internal sources and bonds.

The finance commissioner said N100 billion would be sourced internally, N52 billion externally and N40 billion through bonds.

Mr Sam Egbube, the state Commissioner for Budget and Planning, in his speech added that the main focus of the budget was to accomplish the Governor’s THEMES Agenda.

Egbube said Lagos government had set up a 10-point agenda to achieve the agenda, which included aggressive development and maintenance of infrastructure across the state.

Others are creation of employment and enhancement of food security, improvement of civic participation, inclusion of and cooperation in governance and investment in human capital development.

Speaking also, Prof. Akin Abayomi, the state Commissioner for Health, said the state focused more on COVID-19 last year because it was a global pandemic deserved a lot of attention.

In spite of this, Prof. Abayomi explained that the state still devoted a lot of its resources to other ailments.

“The attention to COVID-19 did not distract the state from other ailments as only one of the 27 general hospitals in the state was dedicated to COVID-19 treatment”, Prof. Abayomi explained.