Politics

Does Gombe State Owe N110 Billion? #NO

CLAIM: The Transition Committee set up by Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya says that Gombe State’s debt is N110 billion

CONCLUSION: FALSE

FULL TEXT:

The Chairman of the Transition Committee, Mohammed Kabir, while presenting the Committee’s report to the then Gombe governor-elect on May 11 said that Gombe state had a debt profile of N110 billion as at December 2018. 

The 31-member transition committee was inaugurated on April 3, to organise a smooth transition of government from the outgoing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in the state. 

In response to the allegation, the immediate past Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo denied it, claiming that the state’s debt was not as high as N110 billion, and that the state owes no bank. He, however, did not provide any statistics about the state’s debt profile. 

VERIFICATION OF THE CLAIM:

A check on the websites of the Debt Management Office (DMO), the official institution that coordinates the management of Nigeria’s entire debt, and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the agency that provides official statistics on all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria, reveals that as at December 31, 2018, Gombe State’s domestic debt was N63,337,930,142.60 (N63 billion); while the external debt was $37,406.069.57 ($37 million), which translates to N11,483,575,432.00 (N11 billion).

[To get the naira value of the external debt, Gombe state’s external debt was multiplied by N307, the official exchange rate of a dollar to naira as at December 31, 2018.]

If the domestic debt of N63 billion is added to the external debt of N11billion, the result is N74,821,687,574.60 (N74 billion); a figure which is less than the N110 billion the transition committee claimed is Gombe State’s debt. This therefore means that the claim that Gombe State debt is N110 billion as at December 31, 2018 is FALSE.

When the Secretary of the Transition Committee, Zubairu Umar was contacted to provide concrete evidence about how they arrived at the state’s debt, he said the committee relied on undisclosed “sources”, and will provide us with more information in due course. [We are yet to receive further information].

OUR CONCLUSION? The claim is FALSE!

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