No plans to borrow N245bn to fund Anambra budget — Soludo
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, said on Tuesday that his administration has no plans to borrow any money to fund its budget.
Soludo made this statement in his remarks marking the 33rd anniversary of the state’s creation at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia.
The governor described reports claiming that the state government was planning to borrow N245 billion to fund the 2024 budget as false.
He said his administration cannot borrow N245 billion while running a deficit of N121 billion for the 2024 appropriation.
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He also explained that the state is focusing on projects and programmes that are bankable, stating that borrowing is only considered for projects with a high probability of generating returns to repay the debt.
He said, “The report about Anambra planning to borrow N245 billion to fund the 2024 budget is not true, and I don’t know where they got that story from.
“Let’s make it clear that I have a specific view about borrowing. Every enterprise, whether private or public, that wants to scale up its activities must consider the funds, the options, the opportunities, the cost of those funds, and the time value for money.
“It might make sense to borrow today to provide goods and services, with the expectation that tomorrow the economy will generate resources to pay back.
“Let’s be clear, this administration under my watch has a particular view on borrowing, and we have very stringent criteria for it.”
He added, “In 2022, the State House of Assembly approved borrowing N100 billion for a supplementary budget, but to this moment, we have not borrowed a kobo of that amount.”
“Last year, 2023, we had an implicit budget deficit of about N90 billion, but we did not borrow a kobo for that, and this year we have a deficit of about N121 billion, and we have not borrowed a kobo for that either.”
“The reason is simple: we are working on projects and programmes that will be bankable. We insist on borrowing only for bankable projects that have a high probability of generating returns to repay the debt.”
Soludo recalled that there was recently a publication about states receiving N438 billion from the World Bank, and Anambra State was not on the list because the state deliberately opted out of that loan.
