20 states receive N419bn grants as wage bills hit N296bn
No fewer than 20 states have received grants amounting to approximately N419bn in the first half of 2024, findings by Saturday PUNCH have revealed.
This was as the states spent a total of N296bn on wages and salaries for their workers, including political appointees during the same period.
The states are Yobe, Zamfara, Plateau, Ondo, Niger, Nasarawa, Kwara, Kogi, Kebbi, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Gombe, Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Osun, Enugu, and Abia.
The figures were derived from an analysis of the budget implementation reports of the states, obtained from Open Nigerian States, a BudgIT-backed website serving as a repository for government budget data.
According to the data, Kogi received the highest grant of N61bn with a wage bill of N17bn, followed by Yobe, which received N53bn grant with N18.5bn wage bill.
Zamfara followed closely with N52.8bn grant with a payment of N11.5bn for workers’ salaries during the period under review.
Other states’ grants include Plateau (N3bn), Ondo (N32.5bn), Niger (N35bn), Nasarawa (N1.1bn), Kwara (N5.3bn), Kebbi (N6bn), Katsina (N8.3bn), Kano (N5.3bn), Kaduna (N11bn), and Jigawa (N37bn), with respective wage bills of N16bn, N22bn, N13.9bn, N16bn, N17bn, N9bn, N16bn, N27bn, N24bn, and N9bn.
Additionally, Gombe got N2.3bn in grants with a wage bill of N7.8bn, just as Borno received N5.8bn with a wage bill of N9.4bn.
Bauchi also received N15bn grants while incurring a N10bn wage bill, and Adamawa got N19bn alongside its N9bn wage cost.
Osun and Abia, with wage bills of N18bn and N8bn respectively, received N4.7bn and N15.5bn in grants during the period under review.
In 2023, the combined revenue of the 36 states was N8.66tn, 31.2 per cent higher than the N6.6tn received during the pro-subsidy era of 2022.
According to BudgIT, about N5.4tn of the revenue collected by the states last year came from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, following the petrol subsidy removal and currency reforms by the current administration.
Despite increased revenue, about 20 of the states still obtained N446.29bn loan in the first six months of this year, while debt-servicing costs consumed 80.7 per cent of the states’ Internally Generated Revenue during the same period.
States that borrowed include Yobe (N10bn), Plateau (N530m), Osun (N250m), Ondo (N20.8bn), Niger (N34bn), Nasarawa (N40bn), Kwara (N10bn), Katsina (N34bn), Kano (N6bn), Kaduna (N36bn), and Gombe (N32bn). Others include Enugu (N1.3bn), Edo (N633m), Cross River (N20.6bn), Borno (N20.7bn), Bauchi (N19bn), Abia (N3bn), Oyo (N55bn), Kogi (N41bn), and Sokoto (N28.5bn).
There was no record that Lagos took additional loans during the same period despite having $1.24bn in foreign debt.
However, the state spent N22.7bn on external loan repayments and N89.5bn on internal loan repayments.
