Lagos owes more than a quarter of the states' domestic debt and a fifth of their foreign debt
The domestic and external debt of each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at 31 December 2025, from the Debt Management Office (DMO).
At the end of 2025, the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) owed ₦4.36 trillion to domestic lenders and US$5.68 billion to foreign lenders. Lagos alone accounted for ₦1.22 trillion of the domestic debt, 28 percent of the total, and US$1.17 billion of the external debt, 21 percent.
Source: Debt Management Office (DMO), Domestic Debt Data Report for the 36 States and the FCT as at December 31, 2025 (provisional). State boundaries: OCHA Common Operational Datasets (administrative level 1), simplified.
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| State | Domestic debt (₦ billion) |
|---|---|
| Abia | ₦48.4bn |
| Adamawa | ₦67.0bn |
| Akwa Ibom | ₦84.8bn |
| Anambra | ₦11.6bn |
| Bauchi | ₦156.1bn |
| Bayelsa | ₦51.4bn |
| Benue | ₦107.2bn |
| Borno | ₦42.6bn |
| Cross River | ₦137.4bn |
| Delta | ₦248.8bn |
| Ebonyi | ₦13.5bn |
| Edo | ₦91.2bn |
| Ekiti | ₦43.9bn |
| Enugu | ₦157.6bn |
| FCT | ₦188.9bn |
| Gombe | ₦67.2bn |
| Imo | ₦83.7bn |
| Jigawa | ₦1.6bn |
| Kaduna | ₦84.6bn |
| Kano | ₦53.8bn |
| Katsina | ₦14.1bn |
| Kebbi | ₦14.7bn |
| Kogi | ₦28.0bn |
| Kwara | ₦63.0bn |
| Lagos | ₦1,219.5bn |
| Nasarawa | ₦26.4bn |
| Niger | ₦142.7bn |
| Ogun | ₦227.5bn |
| Ondo | ₦8.4bn |
| Osun | ₦80.3bn |
| Oyo | ₦77.4bn |
| Plateau | ₦67.5bn |
| Rivers | ₦378.8bn |
| Sokoto | ₦47.4bn |
| Taraba | ₦85.5bn |
| Yobe | ₦81.0bn |
| Zamfara | ₦57.0bn |
After Lagos, the largest domestic debts were those of Rivers (₦378.8 billion), Delta (₦248.8 billion) and Ogun (₦227.5 billion). Jigawa owed the least, ₦1.6 billion, followed by Ondo (₦8.4 billion) and Anambra (₦11.6 billion).
External debt follows a different pattern. Kaduna owed US$684.3 million to foreign lenders, second only to Lagos, and Edo US$354.0 million. All of the states’ external debt is owed to multilateral and bilateral lenders such as the World Bank.
Source: Debt Management Office (DMO), States, FCT and Federal Government's External Debt Stock as at December 31, 2025 (provisional). State boundaries: OCHA Common Operational Datasets (administrative level 1), simplified.
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| State | External debt (US$ million) |
|---|---|
| Abia | $107.2m |
| Adamawa | $124.0m |
| Akwa Ibom | $55.5m |
| Anambra | $102.6m |
| Bauchi | $220.6m |
| Bayelsa | $55.5m |
| Benue | $58.3m |
| Borno | $69.9m |
| Cross River | $222.9m |
| Delta | $63.4m |
| Ebonyi | $108.0m |
| Edo | $354.0m |
| Ekiti | $136.3m |
| Enugu | $99.9m |
| FCT | $26.8m |
| Gombe | $88.7m |
| Imo | $117.1m |
| Jigawa | $45.7m |
| Kaduna | $684.3m |
| Kano | $128.0m |
| Katsina | $200.6m |
| Kebbi | $76.4m |
| Kogi | $118.5m |
| Kwara | $64.2m |
| Lagos | $1,174.1m |
| Nasarawa | $60.8m |
| Niger | $140.6m |
| Ogun | $217.0m |
| Ondo | $84.1m |
| Osun | $98.7m |
| Oyo | $87.5m |
| Plateau | $92.4m |
| Rivers | $170.9m |
| Sokoto | $93.9m |
| Taraba | $48.0m |
| Yobe | $46.7m |
| Zamfara | $41.9m |
The figures are provisional. The DMO has since published figures for 30 June 2026.