Kano State Government Records N44billion Loss On Foreign Debts Over Naira Depreciation In 2023

The Kano State government has recorded a loss of N44billion on its foreign debts in 2023, which is primarily attributed to the naira's depreciation against the United States dollar.

According to the 2023 audited report, the government reports N44,074,983,000 for "Loss from Exchange on Foreign Debts." In 2022, the state recorded N2,690,039,000. 

The loss is expected to put a strain on the state's finances, potentially impacting its ability to deliver essential public services.

The state government also spent the sum of N6,117,840,000 on Public Debt Charges in 2023 and N6,843,557,000 in 2022.

A review of the budget performance documents of the state done by SaharaReporters also shown that a sum of N60billion was spent by the state on public debt charges between April and June 2024.

The N60billion was spent in the second quarter and this is despite the fact that only N4.6 billion was budgeted to be spent by the state on debt servicing for the whole of 2024. 

The payments were broken into N1.6 billion for “Domestic Interest/discount” and another N58 billion paid for “Domestic Principal.”

In same period, only N628 million was spent on construction/provision of public schools, provision of roads took N7.1 billion, both of whom are far lesser than the expenditure on debt servicing.

The expenses on debt servicing is also four times its internally generated revenue, given that only N14 billion was generated for the first six months of the year and N60 billion was spent on debt servicing. 

At the ministerial level, the capital expenditure for ministry of works and housing is estimated at N18.6 billion for the half year 2024, water resources is N4.2billion.

The total capital expenditure for the economic sector is N36.8billion which is far lesser than the N60billion for debt servicing. 

The N60billion for debt servicing is also more than the N42 billion spent by the state to pay salaries (personnel cost), for the first six months of 2024. 

Follow the Sahara Reporters channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaFClvtH5JM6SSsP7M2Y