33 states CANNOT meet recurrent needs

BudgIT, a data-simplifying civic organisation, says 33 out of the 36 Nigerian states cannot meet their recurrent obligations as opposed to 19 states in 2015.

Before Nigeria’s economic recession, 17 states were able to meet up with recurrent needs, but according to the report, only three states can meet their own obligations.

A report released by the organisation titled ‘State of States’ showed that Lagos, Rivers and Enugu are the only states that can fulfill it’s obligations to its citizens.

Akwa Ibom placed last on the table of ability to meet monthly recurrent expenditure commitments followed by Bayelsa, Oyo and Osun.

Other weak states are Ogun, Plateau, Delta, Kwara, Adamawa, Abia, Benue, Bauchi, Jigawa, Kano, Cross River, Kogi, Imo, Ondo, Nassarawa, Yobe, Kaduna, Ekiti, Sokoto Borno and Taraba.

Zamfara, Gombe, Anambra, Niger, Katsina, Ebonyi, Edo and Kebbi were classified as states with fair shortfalls.

The report focuses on how much revenue is received and generated by the states, the total debt stock and the total recurrent expenditure of the states.

Lagos, Akwa Ibom and Rivers are the states with the highest budget for 2016 while Delta, Lagos and Akwa Ibom are the states with the highest domestic debts.

The table of the external debt profile showed Lagos, Kaduna and Edo at the top of the table with Yobe, Borno and Taraba occupying the bottom spots on the table.

In 2015, 19 states were unable to meet their recurrent obligations with Osun being the worst affected.