However, Fashola pledged to support Ambode’s administration and give assistance in any assignment he might be asked “to undertake in order to defend the course of Lagos State and protect the interests of its over 21 million residents.”
He expressed his support while transiting the spectre of the state’s power formally to Ambode at the State House, Alausa about eight hours and 30 minutes to the expiration of his eight-year administration on Thursday.
But a document from the state Ministry of Finance revealed that the state government under the Fashola administration had a debt stock of N418.2 billion compared to about N15 billion left behind by Bola Tinubu.
As indicated in the document, the Fashola administration had a domestic debt of N69.666 billion; N225 billion debt from bond issuance and N207.499 billion from external loan from foreign bodies, though the state had a sinking fund of about N100.73 billion.
The document showed that the internal loans from commercial banks “have tenors of four to six years, while the multilateral financing agencies including the World Bank, French Development Agency and others, are on concessionary borrowing terms, such as 20 - 40 years tenor and average of 1.75 per cent per annum interest rate.”
On the bond, the document showed that the state government under the immediate past governor issued a bond of N275 billion, though N50 billion had been paid from the total sum in 2014, thus leaving a balance of N225 billion.
On the domestic debt, the document stated that incurred about N69.666 billion, indicating that the Ambode administration “is expected to pay N14.27 billion this year; N13.68 billion in 2016; N34.68 billion in 2017 and the balance of N6.85 billion in 2018.
“On the overall loan, the mode of payment is that Ambode would pay N15.96 billion in 2015; N16.796 billion in 2016; N48.57 billion in 2017 and N10.644 billion in 2018. The debt will be serviced the remaining debt with N59.313 billion in 2019 and N86.54 billion in 2020 as the remaining N180.397 billion would transcend beyond 2020.”
However, the Fashola administration defended the state’s debt burden, noting that its debt profile “is sustainable. The rating agencies including Agusto and Co, Global Credit Rating, (GCE), and Fitch Ratings attest to the debt sustainability. The state’s huge debts are sustainable it will not be a burden to the incoming government.”
It argued that the total revenue of the state government currently “stands at N33.95 billion monthly compared to N27.82 billion monthly it generated in 2011 as the internally generated revenue (IGR) averages 65 per cent of total revenue with Statutory Allocation plus Value Added Tax (VAT) being circa 35 per cent.
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