The foreign debt profile of the Cross River State Government has risen from $153.2 million to $201.5 million between June 30, 2023, and June 30, 2025, an increase of about 31.5 per cent.

According to data obtained from the Debt Management Office (DMO), the state, however, recorded a 27.8 per cent reduction in its domestic debt within the same period. The domestic debt fell from N204 billion in June 2023 to N147 billion as of June 2025.

The DMO report ranked Cross River as the fifth most indebted state in terms of foreign loans, coming after Lagos, Ogun, Kaduna, and Edo states.

It also placed the state sixth in domestic debt, behind Lagos, Ogun, Delta, Rivers, and Enugu.

Overall, the DMO data shows that the total foreign debt of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) stood at $4.8 billion as of June 30, 2025, while their combined domestic debt amounted to N3.9 trillion.

Cross River’s external loans are sourced from both multilateral and bilateral creditors. The DMO listed the state’s creditors to include China Exim Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), India, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

The report further revealed that as of June 30, 2025, Cross River owed $168 million in multilateral debt and $33.2 million in bilateral obligations.