Oil-producing states have slashed their domestic debts by about N610.84bn between June 2023 and March 2025, helped by record payments from the 13% derivation fund.
Fresh figures from the Debt Management Office show the combined domestic debt of the nine oil states fell from N1.66tn in June 2023 to N1.05tn by March 2025, even as their share of subnational debt dropped from 28.6% to 27.2%.
Delta State had the most reduction, cutting its debt by more than half from N465.4bn to N204.7bn. Akwa Ibom reduced its debt from N199.6bn to N118.2bn, Bayelsa from N134.5bn to N73.5bn, and Imo from N220.8bn to N122.1bn. Ondo recorded the sharpest proportional decline, from N74bn to just N11.8bn.
Rivers was the exception, with its debt rising more than 60% from N225.5bn to N364.4bn, despite also receiving some of the highest derivation payments.
Read Also: Oil theft in Nigeria nearly ended, says NNPC
The nine states generated N1.39tn in internally generated revenue (IGR) between Q3 2023 and H1 2025, but nearly 44% of that was effectively swallowed by loan repayments. Rivers reported the highest IGR at N507.2bn, followed by Delta (N250.4bn) and Akwa Ibom (N134.8bn).
At the same time, data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows the states received N1.67tn in derivation funds between July 2023 and June 2025. More than 40% of that came in just the first half of 2025, when allocations hit N688bn, nearly double the preceding half year.
Delta was again the biggest beneficiary, receiving N520.3bn across two years, followed by Bayelsa (N332.1bn), Akwa Ibom (N330.3bn), and Rivers (N309.8bn). Together, the top four took about 90% of the total, leaving the five smaller producers with only N140bn combined.
