The Anambra State Government says it is still servicing loans and other financial obligations incurred by previous administrations, including those of former governors Peter Obi and Willie Obiano.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, disclosed this while speaking on the Voice of Ndi Anambra Podcast. He said deductions were still being made from the state’s monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) revenue to service some of the inherited obligations.
Okafor said the deductions could be seen in the state’s monthly FAAC statements, adding that the loans had continued to affect the amount available to the government.
According to him, the obligations were accumulated under different administrations, including those of Obi, who governed Anambra from 2006 to 2014, and Obiano, who succeeded him and left office in 2022.
The commissioner, however, maintained that the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo had not obtained any commercial bank loan since taking office in March 2022.
He said the government had instead concentrated on reducing liabilities inherited from previous administrations and clearing outstanding domestic obligations.
Okafor also claimed that Anambra had reduced its overall debt by more than 83 per cent under Soludo, while liabilities involving contracts, gratuities and pensions had also been addressed.
He said some of the remaining obligations were external loans obtained from institutions such as the World Bank, with repayments continuing to be deducted from the state’s federal allocation.
The commissioner further disclosed that the state had recently settled a facility obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.
Okafor said the repayment of inherited obligations had created additional fiscal space for the state and allowed the government to direct more resources toward development.
The Anambra debt controversy has, however, attracted a response from Peter Obi, who rejected claims that his administration left the state with unpaid debts when he handed over power in 2014.
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Obi has maintained that his administration cleared outstanding salaries, pensions and other liabilities before leaving office. He also challenged the state government to provide evidence supporting claims that he left significant unpaid obligations.
The dispute has continued to generate competing claims over the financial position of Anambra at the end of Obi’s tenure.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) has historical records of Anambra’s domestic and external debt positions around the period, although the interpretation of which liabilities should be attributed to particular administrations remains a subject of dispute.
The Anambra government has since provided additional details on loans it says were inherited from Obi, including eight external borrowings. It said the outstanding balance of those loans stood at about N127.4 billion at the official exchange rate as of June 30, 2026.
Obi has continued to dispute the government’s account, making the state’s debt position and the financial records handed over in 2014 a continuing point of contention between the former governor and the current administration.