.

…FG, 10 states to spend more on recurrent expenditure

…FG, 36 states to spend N26.6 trillion in 2022

…Allocate more funds to recurrent expenditure despite worsening devt indices

…North-Central, South-East propose least budgetslS-West, S-South propose highest budgets

…North-Central, North-East to spend more on recurrent expenditure

...S-East, N-West states allocate more funds to capital expenditure

By Clifford Ndujihe, LAGOS

Determined to improve on the country’s socio-economic indices, 26 states of the federation will spend a larger percentage of their 2022 budgets on capital projects.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government and 10 states are to spend more of their 2022 budgets on recurrent expenditure.

In all, the Federal Government and the 36 states of the federation are bidding to spend the sum of N26.6 trillion in 2022.

This is the total of the budgets proposed by the various state governments, Vanguard’s checks revealed.

The figure is N3.466 million higher than the N23.18 trillion the Federal and state governments spent in 2021.

Grim statistics

Sadly, N10.97 trillion or more than 51 per cent of the budget will be spent on recurrent expenditure, leaving N10.72 trillion for capital expenditure, even though most of the governors have dressed the budgets with fanciful tags.

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This is despite grim socio-economic indices. Currently, harsh living conditions in Nigeria have put life expectancy at 54 years, the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, AGMPN, said last March. This is the fifth-worst average in the world. The association rated countries like Togo, Ghana and South Africa ahead of Nigeria in life expectancy.

With 12.3 million children out of school, Nigeria is also down on the ladder of infant mortality (57 deaths per 1,000 live births), and maternal mortality (917 deaths in 100,000 births) even as the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said in 2020 that 40 per cent or 83 million Nigerians live in poverty.

The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics data suggests that the number of poor Nigerians exceeds the total population of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius and Eswatini combined.

Like the Federal Government, most states will spend more money next year than they spent in 2021. The 10 states that proposed lower budgets for 2022 than they did for 2021 are Anambra, Ekiti, Osun, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Jigawa, and Sokoto.

The 2022 figure may be higher than N26.5 trillion because some of the proposals have not been passed by lawmakers. There is also room for supplementary appropriations.

At press time, the 2022 budget for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja had not been considered. Last year, the FCT budget was N329.964 billion.

Of the N26.6 trillion budgets, the Federal Government will spend N17.13 trillion, according to the budget passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, which was transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent, yesterday. Together, the 36 states will spend N9.467 trillion.

Indeed, the Federal Government (N6.91 trillion), North-Central (N548.3 trillion) and North-East (N518.988 trillion) shot up the recurrent expenditure figure. In the North-Central zone, only Kwara State allocated more funds to capital projects than recurrent spending. Of the six states in the North-East, Adamawa, Taraba and Yobe had more funds for capital expenditure.

In the South-South, only Bayelsa State will spend more on recurrent expenditure. In the South-West two of the six states — Ekiti and Ondo budgeted more for recurrent expenditure.

All the states in the South-East and North-West are pro-capital expenditure.

North-Central, South-East as poor zones

Among the six zones, the North-Central (N923 billion) and South-East (N1.003 trillion) will spend the least budgets in 2022 compared to South-West (N2.56 trillion), South-South (N2.35 trillion), North-West (N1.54 trillion and North-East (N1.097 trillion).

Southern states to spend more

The 17 states of the South (N5.91 trillion) will spend more money than the 20 states of the North, which cumulatively proposed N3.56 trillion.

Heavy spenders

The heavy spenders are Lagos (N1.38 trillion), Akwa Ibom (N586.88 billion), Rivers (N483.17 billion), Delta (N478.9 billion), Imo (N381.4 billion), Ogun (N350.74 billion), Katsina (N323.2 billion), Bayelsa (N310.73 billion), Oyo (N294.7 billion), Kaduna (N278.58 billion), Cross River (N276 billion) and Borno (N267.92 billion).

Least spenders

The least spenders are Ekiti (N100.8 billion), Plateau (N106.81 billion), Nasarawa (N114.29 billion), Osun (N129.76 billion), Anambra (N141.9 billion), Kogi (N145.8 billion), Ebonyi (N145.41 billion), Abia (N147.79 billion), Taraba (N149.79 billion), Gombe (N154.96 billion), Benue (N155.61 billion), Zamfara (N159.4 billion), Adamawa (N163.68 billion) and Yobe (N163.9 billion).

Fanciful tags

In a display of semantic showmanship, some governors might have reverted to their dictionaries in christening their budgets. From Cross River State’s Budget of Conjugated Agglutination to Ebonyi’s Budget of Latter Rain; and Katsina’s Budget of Economic Resilience, some of the themes are a mouthful.

They include Abia’s Budget of Economic Recovery Through Industrialisation; Enugu’s Budget of Sustained Growth and Consolidation; Anambra’s Budget of Continuity, Sustainability and Development; Imo’s Budget of Wealth Consolidation and Recovery; and Ekiti’s Budget of Legacy Consolidation. Lagos, Gombe and Rivers opted for Budget of Consolidation.

There are also Ogun’s Budget of Restoration; Ondo’s Budget of Economic Re-Engineering; Osun’s Budget of Sustainable Development; Akwa Ibom’s Budget of Re-defining Standards; Bayelsa’s Budget of Sustainable Growth; Edo’s Budget of Renewal, Hope and Growth; Adamawa’s Budget of Sustainable Hope; Borno’s Budget of Hope for Post-Conflict Stability, and Yobe’s Budget of Continuity, Empowerment and Accelerated Development.

Others include Kogi’s Budget of Accelerated Result; Kwara’s Budget of Sustained Reformation for Inclusive Growth; Niger’s Budget of Prosperity and Sustainable Development; Benue’s Budget of Economic Advancement and Growth; Kano’s Budget of Consolidation and Prosperity and Kebbi’s Budget of Economic Consolidation.

Vanguard News Nigeria