Anambra: We’re Still Repaying Loans Borrowed Under Obi, others
- Anambra's Commissioner for Finance said monthly FAAC deductions are still being made to service loans taken by previous administrations
- The claim revives a long-running dispute over the financial position Peter Obi left behind when his tenure ended in 2014
- Commissioner Okafor said the Soludo government has not borrowed from any commercial bank since taking office in 2022
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The Anambra State Government has said it is still servicing loans taken by past administrations, including that of former governor Peter Obi, with repayments deducted automatically from the state's monthly federal allocation.
Commissioner for Finance Izuchukwu Okafor made the disclosure during an appearance on the Voice of Ndi Anambra Podcast. A video clip of the interview was published on Monday on the Facebook page of Anambra State New Media.
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"Every month during our FAAC meetings, when you see the schedule of FAAC, you will notice there are substantial, significant deductions from our own FAAC because of loans previously borrowed by previous administrations," Okafor said. "These loans were borrowed during the time of Peter Obi and Willie Obiano and other past governors."
Obi governed Anambra from 2006 to 2014 before handing over to Obiano, who served until 2022 when Governor Chukwuma Soludo took office in March of that year.
Anambra's debt dispute through three administrations
The claim reopens a financial controversy that has followed Anambra across three successive governments. When Obiano's administration took stock of what it inherited in 2014, it put the figure at around N185 billion in liabilities. Obi's camp rejected that number, with Obi himself insisting he left the state with $150 million in reserves and no debt burden. Fact-checkers, however, noted that no publicly available document conclusively supports that exact figure.
Records from the Debt Management Office showed Anambra carried external debt of about $30.3 million and domestic debt of roughly N3 billion as of December 2013, near the end of Obi's tenure.
When Soludo took over from Obiano in 2022, he said audited accounts showed the state owed more than N100 billion as of December 2021, with only between N300 million and N400 million in cash available at the time.
Soludo government claims 83% debt reduction
Okafor said the current administration had brought domestic debt to near zero and had not taken a single commercial bank loan since assuming office. He added that overall debt had been cut by more than 83 per cent under Soludo, with the government also clearing backlogs of unpaid contracts, gratuities, and pensions.
Among the remaining obligations are external facilities from the World Bank and similar institutions, whose repayments continue to be deducted from the state's FAAC allocation. The government also recently repaid a Central Bank of Nigeria facility obtained under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.
"In a nutshell, we have been able to create more fiscal space for Anambra State by paying off the backlog of numerous debts inherited from previous governments, starting from the time of Peter Obi," Okafor said.
The statement also comes as relations between Obi and Soludo grow increasingly tense ahead of the 2027 elections. Obi, now the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, and Soludo have clashed publicly before, including in August 2025 when Soludo criticised politicians who campaign on a promise to serve only one term in office.
Source: Legit.ng
