By Ken Afor
Three states in the Niger Delta region have received the sum of N242 billion within six months in 2023 from the Federation Account Revenue Allocations (FARA), according to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
The said amount was part of the N1.51 trillion statutory revenue allocation to the 36 states of the federation.
In a report released by NEITI on Sunday, it indicated that the three states got the larger share of revenue. Delta received N102.79 billion, Akwa Ibom N70.01 billion and Rivers got N69.73 billion.
Also, Ekiti, Ebonyi and Nasarawa states got N16.95 billion, N16.84 billion and N16.71 billion respectively.
NEITI also disclosed that the 36 states collected 34.5 per cent of the N4.37 trillion shared by the three tiers of the government – Federal, State and Local Government between January and June, 2023.
In the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, N817.79 billion from the N2.32 trillion was shared to the 36 states while in the second quarter (Q2), N688.2 billion of the N2.04 trillion was disbursed to the states.
It noted that there was a sharp decline of 12 per cent in the overall allocation in the Q2 which resulted in a 15.8 percent reduction in the disbursement to the states in Q1 from N817.8 billion to N688.2 billion.
In view of the sharp decline, states still got more than the federal government after the addition of the 13 per cent derivation revenue.
The nine Oil-producing states including Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa and Rivers, received more in allocations than other states because of the derivation revenue bringing it to N869.09 billion.
“On a year-on-year basis, the report showed that when compared with the corresponding period in 2022, allocations to the state governments from the Federation Account in 2023 grew by about 11.2 per cent to N1.42 trillion from N1.26 trillion.
“On a state-by-state basis, the report showed that Delta State received the largest allocation of N102.79 billion among the 36 states in the second quarter, followed by Akwa Ibom and Rivers states, which received N70.01 billion and N69.73 billion respectively,” NEITI stated
It noted that Ekiti, Ebonyi and Nassarawa states received the least of the allocations – N16.95 billion, N16.84 billion and N16.71 billion were shared respectively.
On debt repayment, Lagos was ahead of the 36 states in view of the allocations to service pending debts as a result of foreign loans and contractual obligations such as Irrevocable Standing Payment Orders (ISPO) and other liabilities standing against each state.
To this, N9 billion was deducted from Lagos State allocation in the second quarter of 2023, the highest followed by Delta (N6.76 billion), Ogun (N6.10 billion), Kaduna (N5.63 billion) and Osun (N5.6 billion).
Enugu, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Anambra and Jigawa States had the lowest deductions of N1.88 billion, N1.51 billion, N1.45 billion, N1.29 billion and N1.16 billion respectively.
After all the deductions, the report showed that Delta State’s net allocation of N96.03 billion remained the highest, followed by Rivers (N66.81 billion), Akwa Ibom (N64.81 billion), Lagos (N51.61 billion) and Bayelsa (N51.53 billion).
The report noted that Plateau, Ogun, Osun as the states that had their revenue receipts in the second quarter in the negative and impacted the most by the debt deductions.
“Plateau Dtate, which occupied the 21st position among the 36 states prior to the debt deduction, dropped to the 31st position, while Ogun moved from the 28th position to 35th and Osun from 32nd position to 36th position,” NEITI stated.
Concerns were raised concerning the ratio of each state’s deduction from allocation for debt repayment.
