By Frank Ulom
CALABAR (CONVERSEER) – Cross River State has been ranked as the fifth most indebted state in terms of foreign loans in Nigeria, only behind Lagos, Ogun, Kaduna, and Edo.
The data was made available by the Debt Management Office (DMO), according to The Guardian.
According to the DMO data, the state also ranked sixth in domestic debt, behind Lagos, Ogun, Delta, Rivers, and Enugu.
The report stated that the foreign debt profile of the State has increased from $153.2 million to $201.5 million between June 30, 2023, and June 30, 2025 – a rise of approximately 31.5 per cent.
Within the same period, the state, however, recorded a 27.8 per cent reduction in its domestic debt, falling from N204 billion in June 2023 to N147 billion as of June 2025.
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Cross River’s external loans are sourced from both multilateral and bilateral creditors. The DMO listed the state’s creditors to include China Exim Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), India, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
The report further revealed that as of 30 June 2025, Cross River owed $168 million in multilateral debt and $33.2 million in bilateral obligations.
Overall, the DMO data show that the total foreign debt of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) stood at $4.8 billion as of June 30, 2025, while their combined domestic debt amounted to N3.9 trillion.
