BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI—Imo State Government has disagreed with its categorisation by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the Debt Management Office, DMO, as insolvent, saying that it was not broke.

State Commissioner for Finance, Deacon Chike Okafor, who spoke to newsmen yesterday, in Owerri, said that contrary to reports that government was owing about N100 billion, the administration’s outstanding obligations to all banks stood at less than N10 billion.

Okafor said: “There is no iota of truth in the alleged categorisation of the state government by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the DMO, as insolvent and unfit to take up more loans as a result of the external loans of the state hitting N100 billion.

“This present administration, since it’s inception, has not obtained any external loans but has graciously serviced the loans inherited from previous administrations.’’

According to him, by a recent DMO publication, the state’s external debt stocks represented about 1.94 per cent compared to the other 35 states and Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

While recalling the seven-year N18.5 billion fixed rate bond obtained by the previous administration in 2009, Okafor also said that over N17.69 billion of the bond had been repaid to the holders, leaving an outstanding balance of over N12 billion as interest.

The commissioner said that before a state could be classified as unfit to borrow, it would have been consistently unable to meet its obligations as they fell due.

“It is, therefore, a deliberate distortion of facts to suggest that Imo State has been classified as unfit to borrow by the DMO and the CBN. The rumour is a calculated attempt to bring to disrepute, the glaring achievements of the administration,”  he said.