This year, the salary payments of workers in at least 24 states across the federation are reliant on federal allocations.
Recall that the budgets approved by 35 states are available on Open States, a BudgIT-affiliated website designed to centralise government budget data, but the budget for Rivers State is neither accessible nor uploaded to the platform.
Based on an analysis of the approved budgets for the 2024 fiscal year, just 11 out of the 36 state governments are able to pay their workers’ salaries without relying on federal allocations.
Among the states listed, Lagos, Kano, Anambra, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Osun, Ogun, Kaduna, Zamfara and Kwara stand out for their robust internal revenue.
The analysis of budget data reveals that 24 states are unable to finance salaries solely from their internally generated revenue, leading to possible dependence on Federal Government allocations or borrowing from financial institutions.
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The 24 states are Katsina, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Cross River, Sokoto, Delta, Bauchi, Ondo, Bayelsa, Borno, Oyo, Gombe, Yobe, Nasarawa, Taraba, Kogi, Akwa-Ibom, Jigawa, Niger, Benue, Adamawa, Abia, Kebbi, and Plateau.
Furthermore, this development indicates that the wage bills of the affected states have exceeded their individual IGRs, prompting worries about workforce productivity and the efficiency of state governments in generating internal revenue.
According to reviewed financial statements, state governments borrowed about N46.17 billion from Access Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank, and Zenith Bank Plc to fund salary payments from January to June 2023.
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