The governors of 28 states who are leaving office on May 29 or running for re-election and the Minister of the FCT have piled up about N5.8tn sub-national debts amid an economic crunch.
The debt figures were based on an analysis of the sub-national debts reports by the Debt Management Office.
The sub-national debts are classified into domestic-borrowings from local creditors are about N4.38tn and external-borrowings from foreign or international creditors like the World Bank are about $3.15bn or N1.42tn based on the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria. 
The data further shows that Lagos has the highest debt with N877.04bn domestic debt and $1.27bn foreign debt. Followed by Kaduna with a domestic debt of N86.86bn and external debt of $586.78m.
The third highest debt is Rivers with a domestic debt of N225.51bn and external debt of $586.78m. 

The Director, Portfolio Management Department of the DMO, Dele Afolabi noted that each state was expected to send in quarterly information on their domestic debts and he said that by being transparent with their debt profiles, states would be able to access more funding. 
In its December 2022 edition of the Nigeria Development Update, the World Bank noted that states’ debts would rise above 200 per cent of the revenue generated in 2022 and 2023.