By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Ebonyi State Government has debunked borrowing the sum of 111.24 billion naira from domestic and foreign financiers in the first six months in office.

The state Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Leonard Uguru, explained that the State Governor, Rt. Hon. Francis Nwifuru, has not borrowed from both internal and foreign creditors since assumption in office on May 29, 2023.

Uguru, who was reacting from the publication of Debt Management Office (DMO) which reported that Ebonyi Government under Nwifuru among other 16 states had between June-December 2023 had borrowed $125.1m (111.24bn) from World Bank and International Monetary Fund where the state according to the report accumulated external debt of $37.54 million.

Speaking further, the Commissioner stated that the State Governor has vowed never to borrow to fund his government.

Since the inception of this administration, Ebonyi State Government has not borrowed any money whether foreign or domestic loan. So, any organization that's writing that Ebonyi is among the states that has borrowed money, I don't know where they are getting their data, he said.

He noted that Ebonyi ranked the least debt profile states in South East maintaining that the governor has plans to run a debt free administration.

So, in South East states, Ebonyi State is still the least in both domestic and foreign debt.

"Even though we have trace of debt which is the 150 million dollar loan from Africa Development Bank and Islamic Bank inherited from the past administration in the reconstruction of ring road which is what made the loan to increase, but it is worth it as the road cut across various local government areas of the state. Outside that, I don't think there's any other much debt owed by the previous state government, the commissioner said.

He reiterated that the current administration in the state is focused on human capacity development adding that while less attention is being paid on infrastructure, that the governor has mapped out plans for the 2nd phase of the one billion naira empowerment to 500 hawkers.

He enjoined investors to take advantage of the peaceful and environment business friendly disposition introduced by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of governor Nwifuru to invest in the state.