*Picks Holes In Debt Servicing Pronouncement
*Questions Several Fiscal Issues
By Sam Tyav, Makurdi
Immediate past Governor of Benue State, Chief (Dr.) Samuel Ortom has called on the current Benue State Government to stop misleading people of the state on issues of the state’s indebtedness and debt servicing.
The former Governor was reacting to a press statement issued by the Managing Director (MD) of Benue Investment and Property Company Limited (BIPC), Dr. Raymond Asemakaha, regarding debt servicing.
A statement by the Media Assistant to the former Governor, Terver Akase said the state’s indebtedness, debt servicing as well as its federal allocations, among other claims, were inconsistent “rounding errors, and unsubstantiated postulations.”
He noted that”the claims presented by the BIPC MD could mislead readers about issues of indebtedness and debt servicing relative to revenue streams of the state such as FAAC allocations and what the Alia administration has been doing with the volume of resources at its disposal, owing to the fuel subsidy removal by the Tinubu administration.”
He stated: “From Asemakaha’s presentation, the Benue State domestic debt figure stands at “N122,500,000,000 Billion,” a phrasing that is internally contradictory, given that this same government had earlier bandied varying figures for the state debt profile.
“The claim that the total foreign debt of Benue State is $26.4 million, equivalent to N39.6 billion, would bring the total debt stock to N162.1 billion.
“The Alia administration’s assertion that the state spends N7.4 billion monthly on debt servicing implies that, in the last 29 months, the Benue State Government has spent N214.6 billion on debt servicing, an amount that is N52.5 billion higher than the N162.1 billion total that the government claims to be the combined domestic and foreign debts.
“The question is, how is the Alia administration spending on debt servicing far more than the actual debts it has declared?”
Ortom wondered why the government would claim that Benue State spends N7.4 billion monthly on debt servicing but has not specified how much the state receives in federal allocations each month.
“Asemakaha also claimed that in the first quarter of 2025, “Benue State’s debt service cost was N21.40 billion deducted from FAAC allocations as loan repayment”. The curious question is, if the government is spending N7.4 billion monthly to service debts, a three-month period (quarter) should amount to N22.2 billion, not N21.40 billion.
“Additionally, why did the BIPC MD not specify the amount of federal allocations the state received in the first quarter of 2025? On what basis does the government want the people to appraise its accountability in stewardship?”
Ortom described as “unsubstantiated the debt service ratio (DSR) of 413%. That ratio would imply debt service far exceeding the annual revenue of Benue State. The statement does not reveal the exact revenue base used, the year, or the income sources, making verification impossible.
“In other words, the Alia administration has left a yawning gap between inflows, particularly FAAC and IGR, and what the government is spending.”
The former Governor challenged the administration to publish a transparent debt profile of the state, including domestic and external debt amounts, instruments, currencies, interest rates, maturities, and creditors.
He also challenged the Alia government to make public the debt servicing schedule detailing monthly and quarterly payments and the sources of funds (FAAC, IGR, grants, etc), insisting that the debt service ratio (DSR) calculation should be clearly defined, with the exact revenue base, annualized debt service, and the data sources used to arrive at the calculation.
Ortom called for provision of information regarding the refund on withdrawals for subsidy, the backlog of accumulated Stamp Duties and SURE-P funds which were being expected at the time Governor Alia took over in 2023.
PHOTO CAPTION: Ortom.
