Just 11 out of the 36 states in Nigeria will generate enough income to pay workers’ salaries in the 2024 fiscal year, FIJ has found.

This was gathered from comparing the 2024 personnel costs and revenue estimates for the 36 Nigerian states in the country. FIJ found that only Kaduna, Edo, Enugu, Gombe, Kano, Kwara, Rivers, Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Zamfara states will generate enough money to offset personnel costs in the 2024 fiscal year.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Nigerians Crowdfund to Pay Ransoms While Government Launches Books

For most of the remaining states, however, federal allocations constitute more than 50 percent of their total revenue for the 2024 fiscal year. By implication, these states cannot fund the salaries of their workers without federal government disbursement or a loan.

FIJ also compared the revenue estimates of the 36 states to their total recurrent expenditures to determine which of the states would be self-sufficient. FIJ found only Lagos, with a N1.25 trillion revenue, and Enugu, with a N252 billion revenue, can fund their 2024 expenditures comfortably.

Only Rivers State and Lagos have revenue projections that exceed the federal allocations budgeted for them in 2024.

On the other hand, six states, including Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Nassarawa, Rivers, Plateau, and Yobe state will spend more than their independent revenue in 2024 to service both foreign and domestic loans.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the cumulative revenue of the states in Nigeria increased by more than N1 trillion in 2022, with Lagos and Rivers as the top two earners for that fiscal year.

States in Nigeria generate revenue from services provided by MDAs, taxes and fines paid by citizens and industries local to their respective states.