Bayelsa State has been ranked as the worst dependent on federal allocations for budgetary implementation.
The ranking was made known by BudglT yesterday in Abuja at the official launch of the State by State report.
In the report by the Head Research and Policy Advisory, Budglt, Iniobong Usen, the cumulative revenues of states grew by 9.19% from N4.69tn earned in 2020 to N5.12tn in 2021.
It stated: “The bulk of the states still rely heavily on federally distributed revenues to implement their budgets: While at least 50% of the total revenue of 33 states were federal transfers, 13 states relied on federal transfers for at least 70% of their total revenues.
“For instance, the top five states with total revenue and FAAC dependencies are Bayelsa, Adamawa, Gombe, Benue and Zamfara with Bayelsa’s percentage of proportion of dependence at 90.30%. Bayelsa’s gross FAAC 196,527,603,326 and total revenue is 217,638,452,235.27.
“Rivers ranks highest in fiscal performance ranking, this is in terms of having comparatively more public revenue left to implement the capital expenditure components of their budgets after fulfilling repayment obligations to lenders and their operating expenses.
“Rivers also gives comparatively Higher priority to investing in capital expenditure compared to their operating expenses.
“Occasioned by the need to stimulate the economy to build back from the economic doldrums of 2020 and improve service delivery, the cumulative expenditure of the 36 states increased by 27% from N5.23tn in 2020 to N6.64tn in 2021. Notwithstanding, while 31 States increased their total expenditure from the previous year, 5 States reduced their expenditure —with Zamfara having the highest decline of 15.59%.”
Country Director, Budglt Nigeria, Gabriel Okeowo, said this year’s edition had increased the number of dataset in the report compared to last year.
He added, “Now we have data about states’ population, number of civil servants, number of pensioners, health per capita, education per capita among several others.”