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| Mr. Udom Emmanuel |
By Kazeem Ibrahym
The Akwa Ibom State government has admitted owing commercial banks N64.5 billion.
This followed criticisms by civil rights organisations and the All Progressives Congress (APC), which urged Governor Udom Emmanuel to make public the state’s debt profile.
Finance Commissioner Akan Okon addressed reporters yesterday in Uyo, the state capital.
He expressed the government’s desirability to convert the state’s debt to Federal Government bonds.
Okon said Akwa Ibom State was taking advantage of the opportunity the Federal Government offered to convert the N64.5 billion debt to bonds.
According to him, Emmanuel, being a financial expert, adopted the financial engineering method to free up more funds to finance development and other basic services in the state.
Okon said: “Whereas Akwa Ibom State was paying N3.6 billion monthly to service its loans, going by the short-term instruments of such loans, the Federal Government bond, with long-term financing, will reduce the payment to a mere N300 million a month. This will free about N3 billion for developmental projects. We wrote to the House of Assembly for approval and an enabling law on this arrangement.
“This is one of the requirements from the Debt Management Office (DMO) for the state to enjoy the approval of benefiting from the Federal Government bond facility.”
The commissioner said the debt repayment would last 20 years, adding that it would not choke the state’s financial system.
He dismissed the rumour that the government had barred other commercial banks from operating its account.
Okon said all commercial banks were allowed to maintain the government’s account, adding that they would only maintain a single unit account that must be captured by the Pay Direct System (PDS).
Information and Communications Commissioner Aniekan Umanah restated Emmanuel’s commitment to completing ongoing projects.
Culled from The Nation newspaper
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