Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf says his administration has settled external debts of over N63bn borrowed by former Gov Abdullahi Ganduje and was not repaid.
The Governor spoke through, Dr Hamisu Sadi-Ali, Director General of the Debt Management Office, Kano at a Press Conference on Tuesday, in reaction to a story, “that the state government had taken the loan of N177 billion from France to fund water project.”
Sadi-Ali insisted that the report was fabricated, revealing that the current administration had rather paid N3,491,137,226.73 as external loans and domestic loans of N60,016,887,353.57 for the first and second quarters of 2024 borrowed by Ganduje’s administration.
He explained that the online newspaper was referring to a subsidiary loan agreement, signed by Ganduje’s government for the Third National Urban Water Sector Reform Project of about €64 million with the French Development Agency in July 2018.
Mr Sadi-Ali insisted that though the Kano State Public Debt Management Law 2021 clearly states that, the State Debt Management Office shall “subject to the provision of the act, borrow on behalf of the government, from any individual or institutional bodies, the current administration had never entered into a loan agreement with the French government since its inception in 2023.
“Our attention has been drawn to a malicious publication which falsely claimed that the Kano State Government under the leadership of Abba Kabir Yusuf had received the sum of N177 billion as a loan from France.
”It is pertinent to note that whenever government intends to borrow internally or otherwise from individuals or institutions it has to be through the State’s Public Debt Management Office.
“Let me clearly restate this, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s led APC administration signed a subsidiary loan agreement for the Third National Urban Water Sector Reform Project of about 64 million Euros with the French Development Agency in July 2018.
“Unfortunately, this is the loan the said the publication claimed that it was contracted during the current administration, I wonder how 2018 became 2023 or 2024?,” he said.
“It is important and worthy to note that, in his efforts to reduce the debt burden of our dear State, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has paid an external debts of about N3,491,137,226.73 and domestic debts of N60,016,887,353.57 totalling N63,508,024,580.03 for just first
and second quarter of 2024.
“With this development, our overall debts outstanding was drastically reduced to N127,793,608,048.62 for both domestic and foreign liabilities,” the DG disclosed.
He appealed to the general public to kindly ignore what he described as fake, malicious and politically motivated news of some unscrupulous newspapers.
Journalism should be a deeply investigative venture and not a mere non-factual fabrication,” he added.
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