Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State on Tuesday said though the debt profile of the state was huge, his administration has been able to manage them in such a way that the economy of the state was not affected.
Okowa who said this in Asaba during his quarterly media briefing with Journalists in the state explained that the debt profile of the state had been rising due to accumulation of debt over the years, adding that the state had been servicing the debt gradually.
“Yes, our debt profile is high, just like every other state. But we believe that we have been able to manage them in such a way that it does not affect the governance of the state.
READ ALSO: Okowa signs violence against persons, local content bills
“When we came in we inherited a lot of debt just like other states and the Federal government came up with a programme including how to restructure debt on a longer-term basis.
“When we came in 2015 we were given 8 billion naira from the federation account and the banks took 5 billion out of that money. So we had to manage what was left with us and many people did not understand these things,” Okowa said.
Okowa, however, said that the state will no longer borrow money that will take many years to service as that has been one of the reasons why the debt profile in the state has been high.
He said the state government under his administration has so far serviced most of the debt it was owing making it easy for the state to take other loans to run the government.
“We have cleared all our salary arrears. The one billion naira bond we took has been paid.
What we are now paying is below two billion. We have not taken long term debt that will choke us.
“We are planning our economy in such a way that it will not destroy our future. We are going for short term loans, especially for road construction because we cannot wait until we have money before embarking on road projects. So we can assure you that we are not piling up debt,” Okowa said.
