Kaduna's accounts put its end-2024 loans at N512.89bn. Its 2025 accounts book N528.47bn more as a 'prior year loan understatement'

Kaduna State's Accountant-General signed the state's 2024 accounts on 30 January 2025 with its loans at N512,887,301,000 on 31 December 2024. The state's audited accounts for 2025 now take N528,467,886,000 off its net assets on a single line headed "Prior year loan understatement". The correction is larger than the whole loan figure the 2024 accounts reported. In between, the state's own debt sustainability report, dated November 2025, put the debt on the same date at N785,875 million. Three Kaduna government documents give three figures for what the state owed at the end of 2024.

The first figure is in note 39 to the 2024 accounts, on page 72 of the Kaduna State Accountant-General's Report for 2024. It lists N501,683,896,000 owed to "Development Partners", N4,329,197,000 to the Power Aviation Intervention Fund and N3,668,305,000 under the Commercial Agricultural Guarantee Credit Scheme, a long-term total of N509,681,399,000. With the N3,205,903,000 current portion in note 37, the note's total is N512,887,301,000. The Auditor-General, Abubakar Abdullahi, certified on page 4 of the same report that the statements "show a true and fair view" of the state's position at 31 December 2024. Note 21 says foreign loans were remeasured "based on the exchange rates prevailing at the balance sheet date".

The second figure is in the Kaduna State Debt Sustainability Analysis and Debt Management Strategy Report, dated November 2025 and posted on the state's website on 1 December 2025. Page 16 puts external debt at end-2024 at N760,110 million, 96.72 per cent of the total, and domestic debt at N25,765 million, a total of N785,875 million. It lists the foreign loans in dollars: $487.2 million from the World Bank, $83.8 million from the African Development Bank and $14.1 million from another multilateral lender. A note on page 17 says the external loans were converted "at N1,300: $1 as at 2024". The report's total is N272.99 billion higher than the accounts'.

The third figure comes from the Auditor-General's report on the 2025 accounts, posted on the state's website on 29 June 2026. Its statement of changes in net assets, on page 7, charges "Prior year loan understatement" of N528,467,886,000 against accumulated surpluses. The balance sheet on page 5 shows borrowings of N988,145,048,000 at the end of 2025. Its 2024 column still shows the old N509,681,399,000. Total liabilities rise from N652,983,593,000 to N1,163,605,580,000, an increase of 78 per cent.

The 2025 accounts are consistent with themselves once the correction is counted. Their cash flow statement records no new loans in 2025 and repayments of N3,504,838,000 at home and N47,701,388,000 abroad. N512,887,301,000 plus the N528,467,886,000 correction is N1,041,355,187,000. Take away N51,206,226,000 of repayments and the result is N990,148,961,000, which is exactly the N988,145,048,000 of long-term borrowings plus the N2,003,913,000 current portion on the 2025 balance sheet. On that reading the state owed about N1.04 trillion at the end of 2024: twice the figure in its 2024 accounts and N255.48 billion more than its own debt report.

The correction is 3.15 times the N167,625,784,000 surplus the state reports for 2025. It is the main reason the state's net assets fell by N377,372,467,000 in the year, from N4,015,085,690,000 to N3,637,713,223,000.

The Auditor-General's 2025 report does not discuss it. Its executive summary records the 78 per cent rise in liabilities without explaining it. Its four audit observations cover the valuation of assets, statements not submitted for audit (among them a "Statement of Contractual Liabilities"), inventory and the accounts of stand-alone ministries and agencies; its one fiscal risk observation concerns the fall in cash. None of them mentions loans. Page 15 also carries a sentence that reads as a drafting instruction: "You can present it as the 4th Audit Observation in the same format as the preceding observations:". Beyond the statements, the report consists of schedules of revenue and spending; we found no notes to the accounts in it. The same Auditor-General certified both years, and the same Accountant-General, Bashir Suleiman Zuntu, signed both sets of statements.

The exchange rate is the most likely place to look. The debt report says on page 16 that "the consistent devaluation of the Naira also contributed to increasing value of the external debt stock". If the $585.1 million in the debt report is the same debt the 2024 accounts carry as N501,683,896,000 owed to development partners, the accounts' figure works out at about N857 to the dollar, against the N1,300 the debt report used. That is Vero Record's calculation, not a figure in either document, and the pages of the 2024 accounts we read do not state the rate used. The 2024 accounts book an exchange loss of only N11,449,493,000 for the year, printed in the note's text as "$11.449 billion".

The record supports the state on several points. The correction is printed in its own audited statements, not hidden, and it is what makes the 2025 balance sheet agree with the year's cash flows. The debt report names its lenders and the rate it used, and says the foreign borrowing was taken for "its lower interest rate and longer repayment period". Almost all of the debt is owed to the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Nothing in these documents shows that any money is missing or was misused; the difference lies in how the debt was counted. The debt report has small inconsistencies of its own: it gives end-2024 debt as N785,875 million on pages 15 and 16, N786,395 million on page 30 and N786,394.80 million on page 39.

What the documents do not establish is what the N528.47 billion consists of: whether it is all the effect of the naira's fall on dollar loans, or includes loans left out of the 2024 accounts. They do not say which rate the 2024 accounts used, why the debt report's end-2024 figure differs from both sets of accounts, or whether the State House of Assembly, which receives the audit report, has asked about the correction. The debt report's projection for the end of 2025, N1,084,823 million, is N94.67 billion above the N990.15 billion in the audited accounts; the documents do not explain that gap either.

We invite a response from the Kaduna State Government and Governor Uba Sani, from the Accountant-General, Bashir Suleiman Zuntu, who signed the 2024 and 2025 statements, from the Auditor-General, Abubakar Abdullahi, who certified them, and from the Ministry of Finance, named as the source of most figures in the debt report, on what the N528,467,886,000 "prior year loan understatement" consists of, which exchange rate the 2024 accounts used, which of the three end-2024 figures the state now stands by, and why the audit report does not discuss the correction. Any reply will be added to this report.

What this rests on

1) Kaduna State Accountant-General's Report 2024 (accrual IPSAS), balance sheet pp.26 to 27 signed by Bashir Suleiman Zuntu, 30 January 2025: borrowings (note 39) 509,681,399; current portion of borrowings (note 37) 3,205,903 (N'000). Note 39, p.72: PAIF 4,329,197 + CAGCS 3,668,305 + Development Partners 501,683,896 = 509,681,398 (printed 509,681,399); TOTAL 512,887,301 (509,681,399 + 3,205,903 = 512,887,302, rounding). 2023 comparatives 521,486,064 and 524,691,967. Note 21, p.55: loss on exchange transaction 11,449,493 (2023: 171,698,491), text printed '$11.449 billion'. Audit certificate p.4 signed Abubakar Abdullahi: 'true and fair view'. 2) Kaduna State DSA and DMS Report, November 2025 (kdsg.gov.ng file 23199, created 01-12-2025), p.16: external 760,110 (96.72%) + domestic 25,765 (3.28%) = total 785,875 (N million). External by lender, p.16: WB $487.2m + AfDB $83.8m + multilateral $14.1m (printed '14,1') = $585.1m; x 1,300 = N760,630m (report prints 760,110, N520m lower). p.17: 'Exchange rate for external loan is at N1,300: $1 as at 2024'. Domestic p.17: 5,651.6 + 5,551.8 + 8,969.9 + 5,591.4 = 25,764.7 (printed 25,764.8). Other end-2024 totals in same report: 786,395 (p.30), 786,394.80 (p.39). Projection end-2025: 1,084,823 (pp.28 to 30). 3) Auditor-General's Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2025 (kdsg.gov.ng file 24314, created 29-06-2026), N'000: changes in net assets p.7: 'Prior year loan understatement' (528,467,886); accumulated surpluses 3,980,408,191 + 167,625,784 - 528,467,886 = 3,619,566,089 (printed 3,619,566,090); total 4,015,085,690 - 16,530,365 + 167,625,784 - 528,467,886 = 3,637,713,223. Balance sheet p.5: borrowings 988,145,048 (2024: 509,681,399); current portion 2,003,913 (2024: 3,205,903); total liabilities 1,163,605,580 (2024: 652,983,593); 1,163,605,580 / 652,983,593 = 1.782, +78%. Cash flow p.6: proceeds from loans 2025 nil; domestic principal repayment (3,504,838) + foreign (47,701,388) = 51,206,226. Reconciliation: 512,887,301 + 528,467,886 = 1,041,355,187; - 51,206,226 = 990,148,961; 988,145,048 + 2,003,913 = 990,148,961. Comparisons: 785,875 - 512,887 = 272,988 (N272.99bn); 1,041,355 - 785,875 = 255,480 (N255.48bn); 1,041,355 / 512,887 = 2.03; 528,467,886 / 512,887,301 = 1.03; 528,467,886 / 167,625,784 = 3.15; net assets 4,015,085,690 - 3,637,713,223 = 377,372,467; 1,084,823 - 990,149 = 94,674 (N94.67bn). Implied rate (our calculation, assumes same dollar debt): 501,683.896 / 585.1 = N857.43 per $.

What this does not establish

The documents do not say what the N528,467,886,000 understatement consists of, whether it reflects exchange rate movements only or loans omitted from the 2024 accounts, or which exchange rate the 2024 accounts applied; the implied rate of about N857 to the dollar is Vero Record's calculation and assumes the dollar debt in the accounts matches the $585.1 million in the debt report. The 2025 Auditor-General's report printed no notes to the accounts, so its own explanation of the correction, if any, is not on the record we read. Vero Record read the 2024 Accountant-General's Report's statements, notes 21, 37 and 39 and the audit certificate, not all 205 pages. We did not compare the figures with Debt Management Office tables. We do not know whether the State House of Assembly has examined the correction. Nothing in these documents indicates that money is missing or was misused, and the piece does not say so. The state government, Mr Zuntu, Mr Abdullahi and the Ministry of Finance were not contacted before publication.