Edo's end-2025 domestic debt is N58.43bn in its audited accounts, N41.89bn in its citizens' report and N91.18bn in the debt office's table

Edo State's audited accounts for 2025 put the state's loans at N566,547,078,985.94 on 31 December 2025: N58,430,072,905.82 owed at home and N508,117,006,080.12 abroad. The Accountant-General, Julius Anelu, signed them on 22 April 2026, and the Acting Auditor-General, Okhimamhe Abbas Suleman, gave them an unqualified opinion on 27 July 2026. Two other public records give different figures for the same date. The state's 2025 Citizens' Accountability Report, published on 25 September 2026, gives a "2025 Closing Debt Stock" of N531,305,819,015, with domestic debt at N41,888,968,380. The Debt Management Office's table of state domestic debt at 31 December 2025, which it says is based on data provided by the states, puts Edo's domestic debt at N91,183,108,919.45.

The gap between the accounts and the citizens' report is the debt that falls due within a year. Supplementary Note 16, on page 94 of the Auditor-General's report, splits each loan into a current portion, payable within twelve months, and a non-current portion. For domestic loans the two are N16,541,104,525.67 and N41,888,968,380.15, which add to N58,430,072,905.82. For external loans they are N18,700,155,445.26 and N489,416,850,634.86, which add to N508,117,006,080.12. The citizens' report's closing figures, N41,888,968,380 and N489,416,850,635, are the non-current portions alone, and its total of N531,305,819,015 leaves out the N35,241,259,970.93 that the accounts show as due within a year, 6.22 per cent of the audited total. On page 23 the report also lists the N531,305,819,015 in its table of assets and liabilities as "Debt (Long and Short Term)". The report describes itself as "a series of graphic and tabular illustrations of the contents of the Audited Financial Statements".

The opening figures follow the same pattern. The citizens' report starts 2025 with debt of N648,147,318,731, made up of N76,774,503,515 domestic and N571,372,815,216 foreign. Note 16 opens the year at N671,596,001,743.54: N83,493,870,416.42 domestic and N588,102,131,327.12 external. N648,147,318,730.86 is the figure the accounts' five-year highlights on page 24 give for non-current liabilities at the end of 2024. Note 39 on page 66 prints the same figure as the opening sub-total of borrowings, although the two lines above it add to N671,596,001,743.54, which is N23,448,683,012.68 more. Only the larger figure rolls forward to the closing balance: N671,596,001,743.54 plus N59,765,186,234.16 borrowed, less N27,984,951,561.28 repaid and N136,829,157,430.48 of adjustments, gives N566,547,078,985.94. On the citizens' report's basis debt fell by N116,841,499,716 in 2025; on the audited totals it fell by N105,048,922,757.60.

The Debt Management Office's figure is higher than both. Its table puts Edo's domestic debt at 31 December 2025 at N91,183,108,919.45, which is N32,753,036,013.63, or 56.06 per cent, more than the N58,430,072,905.82 in the audited accounts. The gap was there a year earlier. The office's table for 31 December 2024, which it says "is generated from the signed-off submissions received from the 36 States of the Federation and FCT", gave Edo N112,998,966,385.30, which is N29,505,095,968.88 more than the N83,493,870,416.42 with which the accounts open 2025. The tables give one figure per state and do not list loans or other items, so they cannot show what makes up the difference. In the office's figures Edo's domestic debt fell by N21,815,857,465.85 during 2025; in the accounts it fell by N25,063,797,510.60.

The fall in the accounts came from an adjustment, not from repayment. Before adjustments, Edo's domestic loans would have risen in 2025: N83,493,870,416.42 at the start, plus N32,941,370,151.68 borrowed, less N9,284,796,116.02 repaid, is N107,150,444,452.08. In Note 16's column headed "Adjustment in Opening Balance", four loans from the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria are removed in full: N12,256,790,035.43 outstanding on a salary bailout, N7,788,461,090.23 on a N10 billion excess crude project loan, N17,262,410,084.85 on a monthly budget support loan and N18,043,082,742.84 on an FGN bridging facility. Together that is N55,350,743,953.35. All four end the year at nil, with no repayment recorded against them in either half of 2025. Two smaller adjustments go the other way, N6,807,118,830.54 added to a UBA loan and N176,746,423.45 taken off a restructured bank loan, which leaves a net domestic adjustment of N48,720,371,546.26 and the closing figure of N58,430,072,905.82. The statement of financial performance on page 25 records no debt forgiveness for 2025, and Supplementary Note 17 on page 101 credits an "Opening Balance Adjustment in Loans" of N143,459,529,837.57 directly to reserves. The accounts give no reason for the removals.

The removals are not peculiar to Edo, and another state's audit report offers an explanation that Edo's does not. The Katsina State Auditor-General's report for 2025 carries loans under the same four names at nil at the end of 2025, among them a bridging facility of exactly N18,043,082,742.84, and states: "The following 4No. Borrowings have been liquidated by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the loan facilities are hereby stand as liquidated and no more deductions from FAAC". If the same decision covered Edo, its accounts would be recording a federal action rather than a choice of its own; Vero Record did not find a federal document announcing it. Edo's own accounts still list N1,563,267,892.17 under "Budget Support Facility" among payments made at source from its federation allocation in 2025 (Note 43, page 67). The revenue statement on page 75 gives the same amount the label "Ecological Fund".

How the fall was presented at the time is on record. A release from the Federal Information Centre in Benin, dated 9 July 2025 and published on the Federal Ministry of Information's website, said that "Edo State Government, under the Leadership of Governor Monday Okpebholo" had cut its domestic debt by N30.6 billion in three months, from N113 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to N82.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025, citing debt office data. It credited "Debt Management Strategies such as renegotiation and reallocation". It did not mention the four federal loans. The audited accounts, published a year later, date their removal to the opening balance of 2025.

The external figures reconcile. The debt office's table of external debt at 31 December 2025 gives Edo $354,025,077.52, all of it owed to multilateral lenders. Converted at N1,435.2571 to the dollar, the Central Bank rate the office says it used for that date, that is N508,117,006,088.63, within N9 of the N508,117,006,080.12 in the accounts. The accounts reach their figure by cutting the opening external balance of N588,102,131,327.12 by N88,108,785,884.22 under "Opening Balance Adjustment", while their column for the effect of exchange rate changes is empty; the notes do not say what the adjustment represents. In dollars, the office's tables show Edo's external debt falling from $383,049,169.32 at the end of 2024, a reduction of $29,024,091.80.

Edo's external repayments also match the federal record. The accounts book N18,700,155,445.26 of external principal repaid in 2025: N10,181,943,469.25 from January to June and N8,518,211,976.01 from July to December. The twelve FAAC distribution tables of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation for allocations shared in 2025 deduct, under "External Debt", N1,970,259,581.95 from Edo in January, N1,642,336,777.46 in each of the six months from February to July and N1,375,175,039.71 in each of the five months from August to December. Those add to N18,700,155,445.26, and the January to June months to N10,181,943,469.25, the same figures to the kobo. The tables also deduct N510,923,032.41 a month as a contractual obligation, the monthly instalment the accounts record on the state's second bond from March to December. New borrowing of N59,765,186,234.16 in 2025 is the same in the accounts and the citizens' report: N32,941,370,151.68 domestic, of which N32,134,339,608.08 came from First Bank CFF loans, and N26,823,816,082.48 external.

The figures moved again in 2026. The debt office's table for 30 June 2026 puts Edo's domestic debt at N214,932,641,673.39, which is N123,749,532,753.94 more than six months earlier. Edo's budget implementation report for the third quarter of 2026, produced by the Office of the Accountant-General and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, records N57,243,529,907.77 of domestic loans received from January to September. N10,533,486,052.70 of that came in the third quarter, which leaves N46,710,043,855.07 for the first half. The same report shows N61,967,613,647.33 spent on public debt charges in nine months against N39,999,999,999.99 budgeted for the whole year, or 154.9 per cent; its four parts, N19,152,240,954.08 of foreign interest, N19,981,383,485.11 of domestic interest, N6,858,363,843.41 of foreign principal and N15,975,625,364.73 of domestic principal, add to that total.

Set side by side, the records support the state on its external debt, on its repayments and on the internal arithmetic of its loan schedule. The seven domestic loans left in Note 16 add to N58,430,072,905.82, and each column of the citizens' report's debt table adds up on its own terms: N76,774,503,515 plus N32,941,370,152, less N9,284,796,116 and N58,542,109,171, is N41,888,968,380. The differences lie in what each document counts. The citizens' report leaves out the debt due within a year while labelling its total long and short term. Note 39 prints an opening sub-total that does not match its own lines. The debt office publishes a domestic figure for Edo N32.75 billion above the audited accounts. None of the documents says that money is missing, and this report does not suggest it.

The documents do not explain these differences. They do not say what the debt office's N91,183,108,919.45 includes beyond the loans in the accounts, whether the federal decision described in Katsina's report also covers Edo's four loans, what the N88,108,785,884.22 external adjustment represents, or what took Edo's domestic debt to N214.93 billion by June 2026. Vero Record did not put questions to the Edo State Government, its Accountant-General or the Debt Management Office before publication; the figures above are their own, set against each other.

What this rests on

Documents downloaded and read for this report: the Report of the Auditor-General, Edo State, on the Accounts and Financial Statements of the Edo State Government for the year ended 31st December, 2025 (132 pages, edostate.gov.ng, opinion dated 27 July 2026; five-year highlights p.24, statement of financial performance p.25, Notes 39, 42 and 43 pp.66 to 67, revenue statement p.75, Supplementary Note 16 p.94, loan notes IL 5 to EL 1 pp.95 to 100, Supplementary Note 17 p.101); the Edo State Government 2025 Citizens' Accountability Report (38 pages, published 25 September 2026; pp.3 and 23); the Edo State FY 2026 Q3 Budget Implementation Report (82 pages; revenue and expenditure tables); Debt Management Office tables of states' domestic debt at 31 December 2024, 31 December 2025 and 30 June 2026, of states' external debt at 31 December 2024 and 31 December 2025, and of Nigeria's total public debt at 31 December 2025 (exchange rate note); Table III of the twelve OAGF FAAC distribution reports for allocations shared from January to December 2025 (already on disk from earlier Vero work, page extract saved); the Katsina State Auditor-General's 2025 report, pp.142 to 143 of the PDF (already on disk, extract saved); the Federal Information Centre Benin release of 9 July 2025 on fmino.gov.ng. Arithmetic re-done: domestic current N16,541,104,525.67 + non-current N41,888,968,380.15 = N58,430,072,905.82; external N18,700,155,445.26 + N489,416,850,634.86 = N508,117,006,080.12; current portion N16,541,104,525.67 + N18,700,155,445.26 = N35,241,259,970.93 = N566,547,078,985.94 - N531,305,819,015.01, which is 6.22 per cent of N566,547,078,985.94; the seven remaining domestic loans N9,135,573,194.17 + N1,638,916,564.41 + N1,666,666,666.67 + N8,778,522,139.13 + N32,134,339,608.08 + N4,416,979,789.42 + N659,074,943.94 = N58,430,072,905.82; domestic before adjustments N83,493,870,416.42 + N32,941,370,151.68 - N9,284,796,116.02 = N107,150,444,452.08, and N107,150,444,452.08 - N48,720,371,546.26 = N58,430,072,905.82; external roll N588,102,131,327.12 - N88,108,785,884.22 + N26,823,816,082.48 - N18,700,155,445.26 = N508,117,006,080.12; Note 39 opening lines N83,493,870,416.42 + N588,102,131,327.12 = N671,596,001,743.54 against a printed sub-total of N648,147,318,730.86, difference N23,448,683,012.68; N671,596,001,743.54 + N59,765,186,234.16 - N27,984,951,561.28 - N136,829,157,430.48 = N566,547,078,985.94, while the same roll from N648,147,318,730.86 gives N543,098,395,973.26; fall on audited totals N671,596,001,743.54 - N566,547,078,985.94 = N105,048,922,757.60; four federal loans N12,256,790,035.43 + N7,788,461,090.23 + N17,262,410,084.85 + N18,043,082,742.84 = N55,350,743,953.35; net domestic adjustment -N55,350,743,953.35 - N176,746,423.45 + N6,807,118,830.54 = -N48,720,371,546.26; all adjustments N48,720,371,546.26 + N88,108,785,884.22 = N136,829,157,430.48; Note 17 N136,829,157,430.48 + N6,807,118,830.54 - N176,746,423.45 = N143,459,529,837.57; domestic repayments N4,498,334,386.69 + N4,786,461,729.33 = N9,284,796,116.02; DMO minus accounts at end-2025 N91,183,108,919.45 - N58,430,072,905.82 = N32,753,036,013.63 (56.06 per cent); at end-2024 N112,998,966,385.30 - N83,493,870,416.42 = N29,505,095,968.88; DMO fall N112,998,966,385.30 - N91,183,108,919.45 = N21,815,857,465.85; accounts fall N83,493,870,416.42 - N58,430,072,905.82 = N25,063,797,510.60; external $354,025,077.52 x N1,435.2571 = N508,117,006,088.63, N8.51 above the accounts; DMO external $383,049,169.32 - $354,025,077.52 = $29,024,091.80; FAAC external debt deductions N1,970,259,581.95 + 6 x N1,642,336,777.46 + 5 x N1,375,175,039.71 = N18,700,155,445.26, January to June N1,970,259,581.95 + 5 x N1,642,336,777.46 = N10,181,943,469.25, July to December N1,642,336,777.46 + 5 x N1,375,175,039.71 = N8,518,211,976.01; second bond 2025 N322,916,666.67 + N376,679,500.07 + 10 x N510,923,032.41 = N5,808,826,490.84; Note 43 N1,802,108,328.10 + N1,563,267,892.17 + N119,398,035.57 = N3,484,774,255.84; new borrowing N32,941,370,151.68 + N26,823,816,082.48 = N59,765,186,234.16 and N32,134,339,608.08 + N807,030,543.60 = N32,941,370,151.68; citizens' report domestic N76,774,503,515 + N32,941,370,152 - N9,284,796,116 - N58,542,109,171 = N41,888,968,380 and foreign N571,372,815,216 + N26,823,816,082 - N18,700,155,445 - N90,079,625,218 = N489,416,850,635; DMO June 2026 N214,932,641,673.39 - N91,183,108,919.45 = N123,749,532,753.94; 2026 domestic loans N57,243,529,907.77 - N10,533,486,052.70 = N46,710,043,855.07; 2026 debt charges N19,152,240,954.08 + N19,981,383,485.11 + N6,858,363,843.41 + N15,975,625,364.73 = N61,967,613,647.33, which is 154.9 per cent of N39,999,999,999.99.

What this does not establish

What the Debt Management Office's N91,183,108,919.45 for Edo includes beyond the loans in the audited accounts; its tables give one figure per state and the office says they are based on data the states provide. Whether the Federal Government liquidated Edo's four federal loans; the statement that the four facilities were liquidated and FAAC deductions ended comes from Katsina's audit report and concerns Katsina, and no federal document announcing such a decision was found. What the N1,563,267,892.17 listed as a budget support facility payment at source in 2025 was, since the same accounts label it an ecological fund receipt on another page. What the N88,108,785,884.22 adjustment to opening external debt represents, and why the exchange rate column is empty. Why Note 39 prints an opening sub-total of N648,147,318,730.86 for lines that add to N671,596,001,743.54. What took the office's figure for Edo's domestic debt from N91.18 billion to N214.93 billion between December 2025 and June 2026. Nothing in the documents shows money missing or wrongdoing by any official, and none is alleged. Vero Record did not put questions to the Edo State Government, its Accountant-General or the Debt Management Office before publication.