The Abia State Government has ruled out going to the bond market to raise funds for provision of infrastructure.
Addressing members of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in the state capital Umuahia last week, Governor Theodore Orji said he will never go to the bond market to raise funds for infrastructure.
Instead, the governor said he would work towards increasing the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to meet infrastructural needs.
Orji said: “If I can increase my IGR and make do with it, why do I have to go to the bond market?
“Bond is not free of charge. You have to pay back; it’s like a loan and you have to cut your coat according to your cloth.”
He noted that if the state goes to the bonds market “at the end of the month before my money comes from Abuja they will take the bond.
“I will not be able to pay salaries first, I will have big problems in my state so it is better that I manage what I have prudently and increase my IGR.”
To increase IGR for the State, Orji said his administration has “mounted pressure on revenue generating agencies to increase the State IGR because that’s where our salvation is, not by going to the bond market and taking loan.
“We are squeezing ourselves, we are managing and we are managing very well.”
He added: “You can go and take an overdraft to pay salaries which you can pay under a very short period of time but N250billion or N300 billion bonds, I will never do that.
“I have never gone to the bond market but I am happy with what I am putting on ground.”
Orji disclosed that the major challenge bedevlling his administration is the inability of the state parastatals to sustain themselves.
