Rivers State Ranks 1st In Fiscal Performance BudgIT

Rivers State has held on to its overall fiscal performance position, outperforming the others as it ranked first as it did in 2020 and 2021 among the 36 States in Nigeria.

BrandNewsDay reports that this was as Kaduna and Cross River State made it to the top five on the overall fiscal performance ranking in the country, while Yobe State dropped to the bottom five having fallen 13 places from 21st in 2021 to 34th position in 2022.

BudgIT, a foremost civic-tech organisation leading the advocacy for fiscal transparency and accountability in Nigeria, made this disclosure in the 2022 edition of its annual State of States report titled; Sustainable Governance Reforms for a New Era.

Iniobong Usen, BudgIT’s Research and Policy Advisory Lead, said the report, which is BudgIT’s signature analysis, assesses and ranks the fiscal performance of all 36 states, from the most sustainable to the least sustainable.

Usen stated that for the 2022 edition, all 36 states were ranked using five metrics. Index A examines states’ ability to meet Operating Expenses (Recurrent Expenditure) with only their Internally Generated Revenue.; Index A1 looks at the percentage year-on-year growth of each state’s Internally Generated Revenue.

“Index B reviews states’ ability to cover all operating expenses and loan repayment obligations with their Total Revenue (Internally Generated Revenue + Statutory Transfers + Aids and Grants) without resorting to borrowing.

“Index C estimates the debt sustainability of the states using 4 major Indicators. A. Debt as a percent of GDP, B. Debt as a percent of Revenue, C. Debt service as a per cent of Revenue, D. Personnel Cost as a percent of Revenue. Index D evaluates the degree to which each State is prioritising capital expenditure with respect to their operating expenses (recurrent expenditure).”

On Index A, BudgIT said only two States (Lagos and Rivers) generated enough revenues internally to take care of their operating expenses.

BudgIT noted that cumulative spending on capital expenditure by the 36 States grew by 52.52 per cent from N1.77 trillion in 2020 to N2.70 trillion in 2021. Eight States increased the capital expenditure year-on-year by more than 100 percent, however, just five States—including Anambra, Ebonyi, Cross River, Kaduna, and Rivers—prioritised capital expenditure over operation expenses, signalling the prioritisation of investments in infrastructure, job creation, and human capital development.

BudgIt State Of States 2022

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