Nigeria’s sub-nationals see revenues rise to N1.7trn in H1 on higher internal, federal receipts, with debt also higher at N4.6trn
Nse Anthony-Uko is Abuja editorial lead at business a.m. covering finance, business, economy, federal government economic MDAs and FCT
Nigeria’s 36 sub-nationals and Abuja, the capital city increased their internally generated revenues by 27.7 per cent to N579.49 billion in the first half of 2018 from N453.83 billion recorded in the first six months of 2017, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have shown.
The states and Abuja also received N1.23 trillion as net allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), indicating total revenues of N1.74 trillion during the review period.
However, the value of foreign debt stood at $4.22 billion, while domestic debt had reached N3.38 trillion as at the end of June 2018, compared to $4.11 billion and N3.35 trillion as at December 2017.
The NBS, in its State Level IGR report for the second quarter (Q2, 2018) released on Tuesday, further explained that 28 states posted growth in IGR, while eight states including Abia, Anambra, Benue, Taraba, Kebbi, Kwara, Ebonyi and Enugu recorded a decline at the end of the half year
estimate.
Some states with high level of increases included Akwa Ibom with a 61.5 percent increase in IGR to N11.8 billion as at June 2018 from N7.32 billion a year earlier.
Cross River and Gombe states marked 47.44 and 40.9 percent increases from N6.6 billion to N9.75 billion and from N1.7 billion to N2.4 billion respectively, during the review periods.
Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance advised state governments to slash bogus overhead spending by embracing fiscal discipline in order ensure higher deliverables.
Ahmed, made the call in her address at the ongoing 2018 Conference of the
National Council on Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED).
The conference with theme, ‘Unlocking the Potentials of Non-Oil Sector as a Sustainable Source of Government Revenue’, started on November 26th and will end on 28th November, 2018, in Kaduna State, where Ahmed maintained that states should look inwards to harness various avenues to improve on their financial resources in order to meet demands in their states.