Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa said his administration has reduced the state’s domestic debt profile by 82.6 per cent within the first 18 months in office.
Aiyedatiwa disclosed this on Friday at the maiden edition of the quarterly media briefing of his administration held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre in Akure.
He also described the reduction as the highest recorded by any state in Nigeria.
The governor, represented by his Chief Press Secretary, Ebenezer Adeniyan, also presented the administration’s scorecard since he assumed office on 24 February 2025.
According to him, the reduction in the state’s domestic debt was achieved through prudent financial management, fiscal discipline and effective debt management strategies.
He stated that the administration had also cleared outstanding salary arrears owed to workers and former political office holders, as well as gratuity arrears owed to pensioners.
‘These have been made possible with prudent financial management that has led Ondo State to recording an 82.6 per cent reduction in its domestic debt profile, the highest percentage in the country, reflecting fiscal discipline and effective debt management strategies,’ the governor said.
In December 2025, the data released by the Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO) shows that Ondo has the lowest domestic debt profile, standing at approximately at 8,415,296,774.51.
Meanwhile, Aiyedatiwa noted that his administration had created more than 6,000 direct employment opportunities in less than two years, particularly in education, healthcare, security and agriculture.
‘It is on record that no governor has created more direct employment opportunities for the people of the state than Governor Aiyedatiwa.
‘In less than two years, more than 6,000 workers have been recruited into critical sectors such as education, healthcare, security and agriculture to improve service delivery and reduce unemployment,’ he said.
Affirming that healthcare had remained a major priority of his administration, the governor revealed that more than 2,000 health professionals had been recruited to strengthen the healthcare workforce of the state.
He said the state had also improved the remuneration of health workers to retain skilled personnel and expanded health insurance coverage to vulnerable groups.
‘More than 2,000 health professionals had been recruited, while Ondo State became the first state in the South-West to implement enhanced CONMESS and CONHESS allowances for health workers,’ he said.
Aiyedatiwa said the State Executive Council had approved a N1 billion Hospital Intervention Fund to expand and modernise healthcare facilities across the state.
He added that 100-bed capacity upgrades were ongoing at hospitals in Ikare-Akoko, Ore, Irele and Igbokoda, while more than 100 primary healthcare centres had been renovated within the period under review.
The governor also said the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH) had also received modern diagnostic equipment, including a 1.5 Tesla MRI machine, a 160-slice CT scanner, 3D digital mammography equipment, 4D ultrasound machines and digital X-ray machines.
According to Aiyedatiwa, a pharmaceutical-grade warehouse had been completed in Akure to ensure a steady supply of medicines across the state.
He said the Orange Health Insurance Scheme (ORANGHIS) had also been expanded to cover public servants, workers in the informal sector and, for the first time, retirees and pensioners at no cost.
Aiyedatiwa revealed that the interventions had begun to yield positive outcomes in maternal and child healthcare.
He, however, said the latest Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey ranked Ondo as having the best under-five mortality indicators and placed the state among those with the lowest maternal mortality ratios.