Gov. Bala Mohammed Drove Bauchi Into N441.7 Billion Of Debt And Smashed His Own Borrowing Ceiling In Six Months

Secrets Reporters

The 2026 budget approved N53,000,000,000 as the domestic borrowing of Bauchi State for the whole year. The official budget performance records examined by SecretsReporters show domestic loans of N90,700,000,000 drawn by the end of June 2026. The drawings are 171.1 percent of the ceiling the budget set. They passed it by N37,700,000,000 with six months of the year left to run.

The borrowing sits on top of the debt the state already carried. The audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 record total loans of N441,686,610,070.77. External loans accounted for N316,569,334,822.92 of that total. Bonds, treasury bills and a bridging facility accounted for N61,299,783,647.30. Internal loans taken from other funds of the state accounted for N63,817,491,600.55.

At 31 December 2024, the total had stood at N386,127,310,422.89. The increase across the twelve months of 2025 was N55,559,299,648.77. Bauchi State entered 2026 owing N441,686,610,070.77, and the budget Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed signed for 2026 planned N298,148,564,010.43 of new loans on top of it, made up of N53,000,000,000 in domestic loans and N245,148,564,010.43 in international loans. International loans drawn in the first half of 2026 stood at N75,931,253,767.00, which is 31.0 percent of the international approval. The new loans planned for 2026 alone, N298,148,564,010.43, come to 67.5 percent of the entire debt stock of N441,686,610,070.77 that the state had accumulated by 31 December 2025.

The Appropriation Law under which the 2026 budget operates fixes the amounts the state is authorised to raise, and borrowing beyond the amount a legislature has approved in that law breaches it. The Fiscal Responsibility framework that governs state borrowing ties new debt to debt sustainability, and a domestic borrowing programme that reaches 171.1 percent of its approved annual amount in half a year has moved outside the figures on which any sustainability assessment of the 2026 budget was based.

The existing debt takes its share before any new borrowing is counted. Public debt charges paid in 2025 came to N59,593,610,619.30. The audited accounts record independent revenue of N50,273,439,775.31 for the whole of 2025, which means the charges on the debt cost the state more in 2025 than every naira of revenue it generated on its own. In the first half of 2026, public debt charges came to N31,207,417,398.04, which is 51.2 percent of the N60,970,367,323.87 provided for debt charges for the whole of 2026. Internally generated revenue for the same six months was N13,821,148,804.46, less than half of what the debt charges consumed in the period. The first quarter of 2026 alone carried debt charges of N16,393,102,949.02.

External loans make up N316,569,334,822.92 of the N441,686,610,070.77 total, which is 71.7 percent of everything the state owed at 31 December 2025. The domestic portion recorded in the same statements is the bonds, treasury bills and bridging facility of N61,299,783,647.30 together with the N63,817,491,600.55 borrowed from other funds of the state itself.

The charges have climbed year on year. Public debt charges in 2024 came to N43,467,756,232, which the Citizens Accountability Report 2024 records at 195 percent of the amount budgeted for debt charges in that year, and interest paid in 2024 was N29,910,385,692. The charges then rose to N59,593,610,619.30 in 2025, before N31,207,417,398.04 was paid in the first half of 2026 alone.

Loans also supplied the capital receipts of the state in 2026. Capital Development Fund receipts for the first half of 2026 stood at N166,631,253,767.00, and the performance records show that amount composed of the N90,700,000,000 in domestic loans and the N75,931,253,767.00 in international loans drawn in the same six months. Other capital receipts approved at N47,500,000,000 for 2026 had produced nothing by June 2026.

The audited statements record cash and bank balances of N60,785,783,614.22 at 31 December 2025, against total loans of N441,686,610,070.77 in the same statements. The Capital Development Fund closed 2025 with a balance of N94,995,812,501.81, and the Consolidated Revenue Fund closed 2025 with a balance of N41,987,908,617.72.

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