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Mbah's administration said it inherited total domestic debt of roughly ₦89.9 billion (later cited as ₦82.5bn by DMO tracking) and external debt of $123,024,888.67 from the Ugwuanyi government at handover in May 2023.

Rather than being paid down, the state's domestic debt has grown substantially since — from ₦119.28bn in December 2024 to ₦194.72bn by September 2025, a 63% rise — as the administration pursued a large infrastructure-financed borrowing programme, including seeking Assembly approval for a ₦170 billion loan in 2023.

Enugu metropolis inherited largely non-functional public water infrastructure, leaving most residents dependent on private boreholes and vendors.

Despite a 180-day pledge to fix this and a reported ₦70 billion water plan, taps remained largely dry more than three years into the administration, with residents publicly disputing government claims of restored water supply as late as mid-2026.

Enugu entered Mbah's tenure with a comparatively small IGR base of about ₦26.8 billion in 2022, leaving the state heavily reliant on monthly federal allocations.

IGR grew dramatically to ₦37.4bn (2023), ₦180.5bn (2024, a 433% single-year jump, the fastest of any state), and ₦406.8bn (2025), making Enugu the top-performing South-East state and 5th nationally.

Enugu metropolis inherited a longstanding arrangement in which numerous residents, businesses, and institutions occupied land leased from the Nigerian Railway Corporation, a federal agency, creating unresolved tension over whether the state government could exercise land-use authority over those parcels.

Rather than being resolved, this tension escalated under Mbah into contested demolitions — including of homes, businesses, and OSISATECH Polytechnic — with the state government proceeding with demolitions even after a Federal High Court restraining order in the Polytechnic's case, and a separate suit by 11 business owners remaining unresolved.