Lagos IGR beats 33 states combined, rises by N33bn — NEITI

The internally generated revenue (IGR) of Lagos State has maintained its lead over what the totality of 33 other states realise, haven risen by about N33 billion in one year from 2015 to 2016.

A report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Wednesday, said the state recorded an IGR of N301.19 billion, a rise of N32.99 billion in one year.

The total IGR from 33 states of the federation, apart from Delta, Ogun and Rivers States stood at N299 billion in the same period under review.

It disclosed that Delta, Ogun and Rivers raked in N44.89 billion, N56.30 billion and N82.10 billion respectively.

The NEITI report, which also reviewed disbursements from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) for the fourth quarter of 2016, also stated that Lagos received N109 billion in 2016.

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But the agency observed that there was a low revenue generation across 34 states, citing Lagos and Ogun as the only states generating more than what they get from FAAC.

“IGR is very low in most states and it is only in two states – Lagos and Ogun – that IGR is higher than FAAC allocations. The figure shows that total revenue by itself cannot fund states’ budgets,” it said.

NEITI said the three tiers of government shared N5.121 trillion through 2016 — a decline from 2015 figures.

“Total disbursements fell by 14.8 per cent from N6.011 trillion for the year 2015 to N5.121 trillion for 2016. In Q1 2016, total disbursements were N1.132 trillion as against N1.648 trillion in Q1 2015, a decline of 31.2 per cent in Q1 2016,” NEITI said.

“Total disbursements fell by 26.9% from N1.241 trillion in Q2 2015 to N906 billion in Q2 2016. There was a further decline in Q3 when total disbursements dropped by 7.8% from N1.887 trillion in 2015 to N1.738 trillion 2016.

“However, total disbursements increased in Q4 by 8.8 per cent from N1.233 trillion in 2015 to N1.343 trillion in 2016.”

The report revealed that “the federal government received a total of N2.08 trillion from the federation account in 2016, which represents a drop of 19.9% of the total N2.6 trillion received in 2015”.

The 2016 budget was for N6.06 trillion, implying that at N2.08 trillion, total FAAC disbursements to states were 34.3 per cent of the budget.

Mr. Nicolas Agu, a finance analyst said the country’s business life is deliberately designed to favour only Lagos State, given the quantum of business activities that go on in it.

“From where will the other states raise internally generated revenue as to compete with Lagos, when there are no functional air or sea ports in them, and there is undue urban migrations from those states into Lagos?” Agu stated.

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