The Anambra State Government has said it is still servicing loans obtained by previous administrations, including those of former governors Peter Obi and Willie Obiano.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, made the disclosure during a Ndi Anambra podcast moderated by Ejimofor Opara, Special Assistant to Governor Charles Soludo on New Media.
The commissioner maintained that the Soludo administration had not obtained any commercial bank loan since assuming office, but had continued to meet repayment obligations inherited from previous governments.
“It’s on record, you know, that this administration has not borrowed a kobo from any commercial bank since the inception of this administration,” Okafor said.
He explained that deductions were made monthly from Anambra’s Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) funds to service loans obtained by earlier administrations.
“Every month during our FAC meetings… you will notice there were substantial, significant deductions from our own FAC because of loans previously borrowed by previous administrations,” he said.
According to Okafor, some of the loans being serviced were obtained during the administrations of Obi and Obiano, as well as those of other former governors.
“These loans were borrowed… even during the time of Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, and other past governors,” he said.
The commissioner claimed that the Soludo administration had nevertheless succeeded in reducing the state’s overall debt burden by more than 83 per cent.
He also said the government had cleared several legacy obligations, including unpaid contracts, gratuity arrears and pension arrears.
“For our domestic debt… there’s what we call legacy debts, contracts that were not paid, the gratuity arrears, pension arrears, we’ve been able to clear all that,” he said.
Okafor further claimed that Anambra’s domestic debt was currently at a near-zero balance, while repayments on some external obligations were being deducted directly from the state’s federal allocations in line with the terms of the loans.
“Before they remit Anambra’s own allocation, they will deduct it as such, because most of them, World Bank loans and other loans, they committed,” he explained.
He added that the Soludo administration had recently paid off one of the debts inherited from previous governments.
The latest claim comes against the backdrop of repeated assertions by Peter Obi that he left Anambra State financially sound at the end of his tenure as governor.
Obi, who governed Anambra from 2010 to 2014, has consistently challenged anyone disputing his record to verify his claims.
The former governor has said that he left $50 million each in Access Bank, the now-defunct Diamond Bank and Fidelity Bank, amounting to $150 million, invested at an interest rate of at least 6.5 per cent.
Obi has argued that, if the investments had been left untouched and compounded over the years, their value would have risen substantially.
The claims by the Soludo administration have therefore added another dimension to the long-running public disagreement between the two former political associates, particularly as both men have traded criticisms over governance and Anambra’s financial management.
Obi is now the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
