Gombe to spend 10% of 2025 budget on debt servicing

The Gombe State government said it would spend 10.02 per cent of its N369.9 billion budget on debt servicing in the 2025 financial year. The state’s Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Muhammad Gambo Magaji, disclosed this while presenting the breakdown of the 2025 budget in his office. Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya had on Monday […]

The Gombe State government said it would spend 10.02 per cent of its N369.9 billion budget on debt servicing in the 2025 financial year.

The state’s Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Muhammad Gambo Magaji, disclosed this while presenting the breakdown of the 2025 budget in his office.

Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya had on Monday assented to the N369.9 billion 2025 Appropriation Bill passed by the Gombe State House of Assembly.

Magaji said that N37.22 billion would be used for debt servicing, representing an 18.08 per cent increase of the N31.52 billion used for debt servicing in 2024.

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He, however, stressed that there was no cause for alarm over the allocation of 10 per cent of the budget for debt servicing in the 2025 budget.

He explained that the approved limit by the Debt Management Office (DMO) for borrowing is 40 per cent, “and it should not be more than 40 per cent of the state’s budget before a state could borrow.”

According to him, the 10 per cent earmarked for debt servicing was low, indicating that the state was doing well and managing its financial affairs appropriately.

He said, “We are borrowing to improve infrastructure and there is nowhere in the world where the government does not borrow for infrastructure and does not borrow to ensure that services that are required are put in place.

“We don’t borrow for recurrent. All we borrow is for capital projects and that is the best practice.”

The commissioner also disclosed that the state government will spend over N32.24 billion to pay workers’ salaries during the 2025 fiscal year.

According to him, the amount was 10.31 per cent higher than the 2024 personnel cost of N29.22 billion.

Magaji added that the increase in the personnel cost to the tune of N3 billion would fast-track implementation of the N70,000 national minimum wage approved in the state.

He stated that the state government planned to spend N38.08 billion as overhead cost, representing 10.29 per cent of the approved estimate, adding that the overhead for 2024 was 22.72 per cent lower than in the 2025 budget. 

The commissioner also added that the state projected a N25.66 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), representing 17.58 per cent of the total budget for 2025, indicating a N600 million increase over the 2024 financial year.