Report reveals states with lowest performance in terms of financial sustainability

macfranc007 September 19, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Tunde Ososanya

- Cross River state is said to be one of the lowest states with the performance in terms of being financially sustainable

- Other states included in the report released by BudgIT are Osun and Ekiti states

- The report was released on Tuesday, September 18

BudgIT on Tuesday, September 18 released the 2018 edition of the 'State of States' report, which has Cross River, Osun and Ekiti states emerging as the three states with the lowest performance in terms of being financially sustainable.

Punch reports that Cross River ranked 36th, Osun ranked 35th, while Ekiti ranked 34th. In the report, Lagos dropped from second to fourth place on its financial sustainability.

NAIJ.com notes that the report stated: “Rivers state sits at the top of the fiscal sustainability index due to its robust revenue profile and manageable recurrent expenditure obligation. The state’s actual revenue of N209.1bn in 2017, when juxtaposed with it’s recurring expenditure obligation of N141bn in the same year, indicates Rivers is fiscally stable and able to cover its recurrent expenditure without borrowing.

According to the principal lead, BudgIT Foundation, Gabriel Okeowo, the foundation did a nine-month rigorous research of fiscal structure of the 36 states in the country.

He said: “As we may contemplate that this research work may not be adjudged 100 per cent perfect, we can confidently say that it reflects the picture of the economic situation of the states based on the information available to us and in the public sphere.

“We are extremely concerned about the poor fiscal management thinking in Cross River with its bogus budget plan for 2018 of N1.3tn, which severely weighed it down on the index, in addition to the state’s inability to meet its recurrent expenditure obligations, its heavy debt profile and inefficient IGR collection.

“States will need to focus on boosting IGR collection and simultaneously slowing down on borrowing. States will also need to look beyond rhetoric and commit to a reduction in their operating costs, including significantly slashing of unreasonable overheads, while freeing up more spending for social and economic infrastructure.

“Significant investment is needed to improve the overall economic performance at the state level, which invariably could create jobs that feed into states’ IGR.”

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that a report by Brookings Institution showed that Nigeria took over from India as the nation with the highest number of extremely poor people.

India previously held the position with a population of 1.324 billion as against Nigeria's 200 million.

The report indicated that the number of Nigerians in extreme poverty increases by six people every minute.

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