Headline
13 States To Borrow Fresh N380bn In 2025 [SEE LIST]
Published
7 months agoon
By
Editor
No fewer than 13 state governments have projected an Internally Generated Revenue of N613bn for 2025.
The states also planned to secure fresh loans totaling N380bn in the upcoming year, The PUNCH’s investigation has revealed.
This comes despite a 40 per cent increase in the states’ statutory allocations from the Federation Account.
In the first half of 2024, about 22 states collectively borrowed N446bn, with debt servicing consuming a significant portion of their IGR.
These loans have pushed the total debt stock of Nigerian states to N11.47tn as of June 30, 2024.
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An analysis of public debt reports from the Debt Management Office (DMO) shows a 14.57 per cent increase from the N10.01tn recorded in December 2023.
The increase was primarily driven by a sharp rise in external debt, and exacerbated by the naira’s devaluation.
External debt for the states and the Federal Capital Territory climbed from $4.61bn to $4.89bn, reflecting a 6.14 per cent increase, while domestic debt saw a significant decline of 27.12 per cent, dropping from N5.86tn to N4.27tn.
In naira terms, however, foreign debt surged by a staggering 73.46 per cent, rising from N4.15tn to N7.2tn, following the devaluation of the naira from N899.39/$1 in December 2023 to N1,470.19/$1 by June 2024.
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States and the FCT accounted for 8.54 per cent of Nigeria’s total public debt of N134.3tn as of June 2024, down from 10.29 per cent in December 2023, despite an increase in their nominal debt levels.
According to their 2025-2027 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Papers, 13 states plan to borrow a combined total of N380bn to finance budget deficits in 2025.
These states include Adamawa, Kano, Anambra, Bauchi, Borno, Ebonyi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Niger, and Oyo.
Adamawa, which did not take any loans this year, plans to borrow N31.5bn next year while projecting an IGR of N22.7bn.
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This was as Kano, which borrowed N6.4bn in the first half of 2024, projects fresh borrowings of N11bn and an IGR of N47.5bn for 2025.
Anambra targets a financing estimate of N18.5bn, including loans sourced through fundraising activities.
Despite taking loans of N19.2bn this year, Bauchi States also plans to take fresh loans of N71bn, with an IGR target of N47.2bn.
Borno borrowed N20bn this year but plans to raise N53bn through loans next year, targeting N30bn in IGR.
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Similarly, Niger State borrowed N34bn in 2024 and projects N31bn in loans next year, with an IGR target of N74bn.
Other loan projections include N35bn for Kebbi, N11.6bn for Kaduna, N8.5bn for Akwa Ibom, N13bn for Ebonyi, N8bn for Jigawa, N76.8bn for Oyo, and N11.7bn for Gombe. Their respective IGR targets for 2025 are N25.5bn, N68bn, N62bn, N26.5bn, N65.9bn, N67bn, and N6.8bn.
An economic expert, Paul Alaje, recently warned that debt servicing and accumulating loans could stifle economic development at the sub-national level.
He emphasised that the significant debts inherited from previous administrations have hindered growth and stressed the need for thorough scrutiny of state borrowing practices and the projects financed with these loans.
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Headline
Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children
Published
2 hours agoon
June 27, 2025By
Editor
An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.
Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.
The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.
Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.
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“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.
An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.
“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.
Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.
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According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.
That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.
Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.
The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.
The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.
AFP
Headline
Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans
Published
2 hours agoon
June 27, 2025By
Editor
Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.
“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.
“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”
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Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.
The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.
Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.
However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.
The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.
In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.
Headline
We Would Have Killed Iran’s Supreme Leader If Given Opportunity – Israel
Published
5 hours agoon
June 27, 2025By
Editor
Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that Israel would have killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the war between the two countries if the opportunity had presented itself.
“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz told Israel’s public radio station Kan Thursday evening, adding that the military had “searched a lot”.
“Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders… so in the end it wasn’t realistic,” Katz told Kan.
He told Israeli television Channel 13 Thursday that Israel would cease its assassination attempts because “there is a difference between before the ceasefire and after the ceasefire”.
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Katz had said during the war that Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”, just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.
But on Kan, Katz advised Khamenei to remain inside a bunker.
“He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker”, he said, referring to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel killed in a Beirut air strike in September 2024.
The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.
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Katz said Thursday that Israel maintained its aerial superiority over Iran and that it was ready to strike again.
“We won’t let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten (Israel) with long-range missiles”, he said.
In his Channel 12 interview, Katz admitted that Israel does not know the location of all of Iran’s enriched uranium, but that its air strikes had destroyed the Islamic republic’s uranium enrichment capabilities.
“The material itself was not something that was supposed to be neutralised,” he said of the enriched uranium.
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The impact of Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme has been a subject to debate.
A leaked US intelligence assessment estimated the programme to have set Iran back a few months, while Katz and other Israeli and US public figures said the damage would take years to rebuild.
Israel and Iran each claimed victory in a 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.
The war erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Iran has consistently denied.
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