Anambra still paying Obi and Obiano-era debts, Izuchukwu Okafor says, while claiming an 83 per cent cut in the state’s burden
The Anambra State Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, said on Monday, 14 September 2026, that the government of Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo is still servicing loans taken under former governors Peter Gregory Obi and Willie Obiano.
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Mr Okafor spoke on a Ndi Anambra podcast released by the state New Media team.
He said the present administration had not taken a kobo from any commercial bank since it took office, yet monthly deductions still leave the Federation Account Allocation Committee inflow to clear older facilities. “These loans were borrowed during the time of Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, the past governors.”
The Anambra still paying Obi point is therefore about inheritance, not a new overdraft.
External loans, including World Bank backed facilities, are deducted at source before the state sees its allocation. “Before they limit Anambra’s own allocation, they will deduct it as such because most of them, World Bank loans and other loans, they committed,” he said.
He also offered a bright ledger. Debt had been cut by more than 83 per cent, domestic obligations were close to zero, and unpaid contracts, gratuity arrears and pension backlogs had been tackled.
A facility known as CAGS had recently been cleared, freeing room for projects. “It’s on record that this administration has not borrowed a kobo from any commercial bank since the inception of this administration.” “We have been able to manage the state debt very well, that we have brought it down by more than 83 per cent as of today.”
Those figures come from the finance ministry, not from an independent audit published alongside the podcast.
Opposition voices around Mr Obi and Mr Obiano may dispute how the 83 per cent was counted, which loans sit in which year, and whether “close to zero” domestic debt matches other public tables.
The commissioner did not, in the circulated remarks, publish a full schedule of principal, interest and remaining tenor.
What the government wants understood is simple. Professor Soludo’s team says it is a repayer, not a fresh borrower at the commercial window, and that two former governors left paper that still clips FAAC.
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Whether that is prudent bookkeeping or selective history will be tested against the next published debt stock, not against a podcast line alone.
