25 states report revenue drop in Q1, 2023, as economic hardship bites

Budget Implementation report has indicated a drop in revenue recorded by about 25 states of the federation in the first quarter of 2023.

This is as 11 other states had no data backing their revenue generated figures during the same period under review.

The Budget Office of the Federation which disclosed the report said 25 states in Nigeria recorded drops in internally generated revenue (IGR), even as they also struggled with cash crunch in the first quarter of 2023.

According to the data report 25 states earned N182.26bn in Q1 2023, representing a shortfall of 3.07 percent or N5.77bn from the N188.03bn made in Q4 2022, based on a quarter-by-quarter analysis.

Similarly, other states like Rivers and Sokoto have no data for Q1 2023 yet; Akwa Ibom has no data for Q1 2022, while Kwara, Edo, Kaduna, Lagos, Bauchi, Zamfara, Yobe, and Ogun have no data for Q4 2022.

Therefore, the figure for IGR was limited to 25 out of the 36 states in the country.

The report also stated that 25 states projected an IGR of N219.56bn for Q1, 2023 but only made about N182.26bn, which means that they had a revenue performance of 83.01 percent, indicating that the revenue underperformed by 16.99 percent as it failed to hit the states’ revenue target.

However, the states recorded an increase in revenue by 30.34 percent from N139.83bn recorded in Q1 2022.

Among the 25 states, Delta had the highest IGR of N40.51bn in Q1 2023, followed by Anambra (N13.03bn), Oyo (N13.01bn), Ondo (N10.79bn), and Osun (N9.06bn).

It was also observed that Enugu had the lowest IGR of N2.32bn, followed by Niger (N3.04bn), Taraba (N3.08bn), Imo (N3.16bn), and Katsina (N3.22bn).

Meanwhile, the 25 states are reported to have a total domestic debt of N3.12tn in Q1 2023.

This was an increase of N130bn in three months, according to data from the Debt Management Office.

Delta was the top debtor with about N421.78bn as of March 31, 2023.

It was followed by Imo (N202.55bn), Cross River (N196.27bn), Oyo (N161.73bn), and Plateau (N148.12bn).

Jigawa had the least domestic debt of N43.59bn as of March 31, 2023.

It was followed by Kebbi (N60.94bn), Katsina (N62.37bn), Nasarawa (N71.45bn), and Ondo (N75.51bn).

Furthermore, 36 states got at least N713.57bn in Q1 2023, which was an increase of 20.85 percent from N590.45bn in Q1 2022, according to reports from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.

A breakdown for 2023 showed that the states received N244.98bn in January, N236.46bn in February, N232.13bn in March.

Also, a breakdown for 2022 showed that the states received N221.19bn in January, N179.25bn in February, N190.01bn in March.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), states generate IGR from MDAs revenues, direct assessment (income tax), Pay-As-You Earn, road taxes, and other taxes such as levies on market traders, land registration, etc.

FAAC gets money from oil revenues and related taxes, revenues generated from the Nigerian Customs Service trade facilitation activities, company income tax, any sale of national assets as well as surplus and dividends from State Owned Enterprises.