By Clifford Ndujihe, Politics Editor

TO address the rising wave of hardship in the country, the Federal and 36 state governments will implement a combined N44.853 trillion budgets this year.

The figure may go up because only the Federal Government budget proposal and those of 17 states had been passed into law as of press time.

While the 36 states proposed N16.065 trillion, the Federal Government appropriated a hefty N28.777 trillion.

States whose budgets had been passed into law are Abia, Anambra, Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsian, Zamfara, Adamawa, Bauchi, and Taraba.

On Saturday, the National Assembly passed President Bola Tinubu’s N27.5 trillion 2024 budget proposal and jerked the figure to N28.777 trillion.

Among the states, Lagos is the only one that hit the trillion Naira mark with its N2.246 trillion proposal that is yet to be passed by the House of Assembly.

Distantly following Lagos are Akwa Ibom (N845.632 billion), Rivers (N800.3 billion), Delta N725 billion), and Ogun (N703.028 billion).

States that budgeted more than N400 billion are Niger (N613.3 billion), Imo (592.234 billion), Abia (N567.241 billion), Enugu (N521.5 billion), Bayelsa (N489.4 billion), Kaduna (N458.271 billion), Katsina (N454.31 billion), Kano (N437 billion), Oyo (N434.2billion), Zamfara (N426.56 billion), and Anambra (N410.1 billion).

Six states will spend more than N300 billion this year. They are Ondo (N395.257 billion), Edo (N342 billion), Borno (N340.62 billion), Plateau (N314.8 billion), Taraba (N313.389 billion), and Bauchi (N300.2 billion).

The remaining states budgeted less than N300 billion as follows: Jigawa (N298.14 billion), Kwara (N296.4 billion), Osun (N273.909 billion), Sokoto (N270.1 billion), Kogi (N258.27 billion), Kebbi (N250.134 billion), Cross River (N250 billion), Adamawa (N225.893 billion), Benue (N225.7 billion), Yobe N217 billion), Gombe (N207.7 billion), and Ebonyi (N202.1 billion).

Only two states proposed less than N200 billion for 2024. They are Ekiti (N159.572 billion, and Nasarawa (N199.9 billion)