THE Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom stated today that the state had accrued N734.9 billion in the last eight years under his leadership.
However he noted that his government was leaving a total debt of N187.5 billion for the state’s incoming administration.
The governor revealed this while presenting handover papers to state governor-elect Hyacinth Alia in Makurdi.
He went on to say that the debt included wage arrears, loans, contractual commitments, and other things.
During his tenure, Ortom stated that the government spent N735.6 billion on recurring items such as salary and pension payments, as well as capital projects.
He said: “This handover note contained not only structure but activities of my eight years administration. It has sectoral briefs of the agencies, ministries, and departments.
“It contains three volumes; volume one is the handover of all MDAs, volume two comprises of policy document of my administration, (the Benue development plan) the part b is the comprehensive briefs submitted by ministries and agencies and part three contained highlights of the debt profile and pension.
“The revenue and income from all sources; federation account, Value Added Tax, grants, loans, and others stand at N734.9 billion as of the end of April while the expenditure stand at N735.6b as at the end of April.
“The Indebtedness of the state which comprises of salary arrears, pension, contractual obligations, and others is N187 billion.
“The debt situation of the state might appear on the high side but the government had taken significant steps to reduce this through debt swap with the federal government.”
Comments are closed.