Anambra Govt, Obi Clash Over N127bn Loans, N2.1bn Fund

Anambra State government has intensified its dispute with former governor Peter Obi over the financial obligations and assets he allegedly left behind when he handed over power in 2014.

The government said eight external loans contracted during Obi’s administration had an outstanding balance of N127.4 billion as of 30th June, 2026, while also challenging his claim that he left over N2.1 billion in an ecological fund account for his successor.

The claims were contained in a statement issued yesterday by the commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, following Obi’s rejection of earlier claims that Anambra was still servicing loans inherited from previous administrations.

Mefor said the loans were obtained for projects covering malaria control, education, healthcare, erosion management, community development, and agricultural value chain development.

According to him, the eight facilities remained outstanding when Obi handed over to Willie Obiano on 17th March, 2014.

“As of the date HE Peter Obi left office (17th March, 2014), there were and still are eight different external borrowings his administration left for his successors,” Mefor said.

He said the outstanding balance of the loans stood at $92.35 million, equivalent to about N127.4 billion at the government’s official exchange rate as of 30 June 2026. The state said the loans had a total contracted value of $123.77 million.

The facilities listed by the government include the Malaria Control Booster Project, the Third National Fadama Development Project, the Health System Development Project II, the State Education Programme Investment Project, the Community and Social Development Project, the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project, and the Value Chain Development Project.

Mefor also said the state had continued to make debt-service payments on the outstanding obligations.

He put the total expenditure attributed to Obi’s eight-year administration at about $4.05 billion, saying the figure was obtained by converting audited and published expenditures using the average official exchange rates applicable during the period.

The commissioner, however, stressed that the government was not arguing that borrowing was inherently wrong.

“Let’s be clear: hardly any government in the world has zero debt stock. The issue is not whether or not borrowing is good: no business or government can scale significantly without some debt,” he said.

Mefor said the state would have had no objection to borrowing for productive investments such as schools, hospitals, water projects and other infrastructure if the funds had been properly utilised.

He, however, alleged that several basic services remained deficient at the end of Obi’s tenure, including public water schemes, schools and hospitals. He also raised concerns over insecurity and poverty.

“We are convinced that many Ndi Anambra would not have minded if HE Peter Obi had borrowed to fix public schools and hospitals, water schemes, infrastructure, or even to reduce poverty and insecurity; debt, especially for bankable projects and human capital development, is justifiable,” Mefor said.

Dispute Over Ecological Fund

The government also challenged Obi’s claim that he left about N2.1 billion in an ecological fund account at First Bank for the incoming administration.

Obi had said the Federal Government released the money about three months before he left office for a specific erosion-control project at Oko/Umuchiana, and that he deliberately left it untouched for his successor.

Mefor, however, said the state had obtained a certified printout of the First Bank account identified by the former governor and found that it was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, rather than an ecological fund account.

He further claimed that records from the account, dating back to its opening in 2011, showed no inflow or balance corresponding to the more than N2.1 billion cited by Obi.

The latest dispute follows comments by the state Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, that deductions were still being made from Anambra’s Federation Account allocation to service loans obtained by previous administrations, including those of Obi and Obiano.

Obi subsequently rejected the claims, maintaining that he left office without outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities or liabilities to contractors whose projects had been executed and certified.

The former governor also said his administration had cleared more than N35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears.

The controversy is a renewed version of a long-running dispute over Anambra’s financial position at the end of Obi’s tenure.

In 2015, the Obiano administration said it inherited project liabilities of about N185.1 billion from Obi’s government, with N78.9 billion paid before the handover, leaving about N106.2 billion outstanding. Obi’s representatives disputed the figures and maintained that the former governor had no unpaid contractors.

There were also disagreements over the cash and assets transferred to Obiano, with the two sides giving different accounts of the state’s financial position at the time.

The Debt Management Office had reported that Anambra’s external debt stood at $30.32 million as of 31 December 2013, alongside domestic debt of about N3.03 billion. That figure predates the current government’s calculation of the outstanding loans and, on its own, does not establish the N127.4 billion figure now being cited by the state.

The renewed dispute comes as Obi, who is the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, campaigns ahead of the 2027 presidential election.