Leadership (Abuja)
Abu Nmodu
1 July 2011
So far, eight state governments sourced N317 billion from the capital market between 2002 and 2011. The former director-general, Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Alhaji Suleyman Ndanusa, said yesterday in Minna at a retreat for commissioners-designate that the funds were secured through bonds that were fully subscribed between 2002 and this year 2011.
Ndanusa said Lagos state topped the list of those that got money from the capital market where it collected N250billion while Cross River took N15billion and Imo State received N18.5billion. Akwa Ibom State received N6billion, Kebbi N3.5billion, Kwara N18.5billion and Niger State N6billion.
The former SEC Boss in his paper ‘Taking Advantage of the Capital Market: A Case for Niger state’ at the retreat attended by the Commissioners Cross River State designate, Permanent Secretaries and Special Advisers, said most of the proceeds from the bond were used for the provision of infrastructure like schools, roads, tourism and public transportation to complement short falls in revenue allocations.
Ndanusa who used Lagos State as a good example of states that utilised the bonds proceeds well said that the state bond was used for the construction of schools, bridges and hospitals while the bond secured by Akwa Ibom state went to the upgrading of the Obudu cattle ranch and the Imo state government spent the proceeds from its bond on the Imo Wonder Lake.
The former SEC boss who is also the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai in Niger state said some states like Yobe, Edo and Ekiti who had earlier collected money from the capital market totalling about N20b had started paying back the loan.
He said the resort to capital market by state governments should be encouraged in order to improve their income but said such money should always be spent on projects that would be in position to repay the loans collected.
While advising the state governments to lay more emphasis on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) instead of depending on money from the federation account for its services he added that I GR should be able to pay staff salaries while money from federation Account should be committed to execution of capital projects.
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