BudgIT: Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom Can Survive Without Federal Allocation

BudgIT, a civic tech organisation, says only three states in the
country can fund their expenditure without allocations from federal
government.

The organisation listed the states as Lagos, Rivers and Akwa
Ibom.

In a report titled “State of states 2019″, BudgIt said 33 states
in the country cannot finance their recurrent expenditure without
federal allocations.

It added that many states would have challenges if the federal
allocation were not forthcoming due to fluctuation in crude oil
price.

Orji Uche, BudgIT’s lead researcher, added that only 19 states
can fund their expenditure with internally generated revenue and
federal allocation.

“The implications of looking at this index is to enable us
understand without federal allocation, how many states can sustain
themselves,” she said.

“And by sustaining themselves, we are looking only at the
recurrent expenditure. Are you going to meet your operating
obligations, are you able to pay salaries so that anything coming
from federal allocation would go to investments in the key sectors
of the economy.

“When we look at the index, we can see that those states that
can meet their expenditure only with IGR are only three States out
of 36 States.

“What this means is that if they were to be oil price
fluctuations and production allocation from the centre were to
reduced, then many states would be in jeopardy.”

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