KADUNA, Nigeria — Kaduna State Gov. Uba Sani says his administration is paying 6.7 billion naira every month from federal revenue allocations to service loans inherited from previous governments, with the repayment obligations expected to continue until 2048, highlighting the long-term pressure debt can place on public finances in one of northern Nigeria’s largest states.
Sani made the disclosure Thursday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he said his government had avoided taking fresh loans since he assumed office in May 2023. “Since I became governor, I’ve not borrowed one kobo,” Sani said, attributing his administration’s approach to careful spending and financial discipline. He said the monthly deductions come from Kaduna’s share of the Federation Account Allocation Committee, or FAAC, the system through which federally collected revenues are distributed among Nigeria’s federal, state and local governments.
The governor said the repayment schedule could be verified through Nigeria’s Debt Management Office. Official DMO data show that Kaduna had about 87.87 billion naira in domestic debt as of March 31, 2026, while its external debt stood at about S684.3 million at the end of 2025. Kaduna’s 2026 budget also set aside roughly 80.2 billion naira for debt servicing, close to the annual cost implied by monthly payments of 6.7 billion naira.
The debt issue has followed Sani since the early months of his administration. In March 2024, he said he had inherited about $587 million in foreign debt, 85 billion naira in domestic debt and numerous contractual liabilities from the government of his predecessor, Nasir El-Rufai, who governed Kaduna from 2015 to 2023. Sani said at the time that debt deductions were significantly reducing the amount of federal revenue available to his government for education, health care, security and infrastructure.
Foreign-currency borrowing has become particularly important because the naira’s sharp depreciation increases the local-currency cost of repaying dollar-denominated obligations. Kaduna officials said in 2024 that loans originally calculated when the naira traded at much stronger levels had become substantially more expensive in local currency following devaluation. The state government has maintained that apparent increases in some borrowing figures reflected exchange-rate movements and disbursements connected with previously approved projects rather than new loans contracted by Sani’s administration.
Some of Kaduna’s borrowing dates to development programs agreed with international lenders during the El-Rufai administration. The World Bank approved a $350 million Kaduna State Economic Transformation Program in 2017, with a 25-year maturity and a five-year grace period. The program was intended to improve the business environment and strengthen fiscal management and accountability. World Bank documents later said the state made substantial progress in meeting performance targets under the program.
Former officials of the El-Rufai administration have defended the borrowing, arguing that loans were properly approved and used for development projects and reforms. They have pointed to World Bank assessments of the economic transformation program and rejected suggestions that the borrowing produced no benefits for Kaduna. Their position illustrates the broader debate over public debt in Nigeria: borrowing can finance roads, schools and economic reforms, but repayment obligations can restrict future governments’ ability to spend when revenues are weak or currencies lose value.
Sani said his government was continuing to fund agriculture, education, infrastructure, skills development and security despite the repayments. He also credited increased federal allocations under President Bola Tinubu’s administration with giving states more fiscal room, while arguing that prudent management remained necessary. During the same television interview, Sani said Kaduna had identified about 550,000 out-of-school children and returned more than 300,000 of them to classrooms.
Kaduna’s experience reflects a wider challenge facing governments across Africa and other developing regions, where long-term infrastructure and development loans often extend across several administrations. Loans from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank generally carry longer repayment periods and more favorable terms than commercial borrowing, but currency depreciation and competing demands for public spending can still make debt service a major budget issue. With Kaduna’s repayments expected, according to Sani, to continue until 2048, the state’s debt burden is likely to remain part of debates over government spending and fiscal responsibility for years to come.
