30 state governors spent N968.64bn on recurring expenses, refreshments in 3 months
No fewer than 30 state governments in Nigeria collectively spent N986.64bn on recurring expenses, encompassing refreshments, sitting allowances, travel costs, utilities, and more in the first three months of 2024
These figures were gleaned from the budget implementation reports, sourced from Open Nigerian States, a platform facilitated by BudgIT to compile and disseminate public budget information.
Out of the thirty states scrutinised, data for six – Benue, Imo, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, and Yobe – was unavailable for the first quarter of 2024.
Delving into the breakdown, it was revealed that the government bodies disbursed N5.1bn for guest refreshments, N4.67bn on sitting allowances for officials, N34.63bn on domestic and international travel expenses, alongside N5.64bn on utility charges, amassing to N50.02bn over the initial three months of 2024.
The general utilities include electricity, internet, telephone charges, water rates, and sewerage charges, among others.
The sub-nationals also paid N405.77bn as salaries to their workers.
Other recurrent spending items covered in the report included the amount spent on foreign and domestic travel, Internet access fees, entertainment, foodstuff, honorarium/sitting allowance, wardrobe allowances, telephone bills, electricity charges, stationery, anniversaries/special days, welfare, aircraft maintenance, and more.
In the first three months of 2024, Abia State spent N10.92bn on its recurrent expenditures, including N165.38m on refreshments and feeding, N39.26m on utilities, N214.57m on sitting allowances, N127.1m on local and foreign travels, among miscellaneous expenses.
During this period, Adamawa State expended N23.7bn on recurrent expenditures with N287.61m spent on refreshments and feeding, N109.62m on utilities, N79.57m on sitting allowances, N768.77m on local and foreign travels.
For Akwa Ibom State, recurrent expenditure gulped N46.85bn, which included N4.46m on refreshments and feeding, N223.32m on utilities, N6m on sitting allowances, N214.61m on local and foreign travel.
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Anambra State disbursed N9.91bn for recurring expenses with N78.18m on refreshments and feeding, N32.52m on utilities, N42.09m on sitting allowances, N188.39m on local and foreign travel.
Also, recurrent expenditures cost Bauchi State Government N35.75bn with N397.58m going to utilities, N50.8m on refreshments, N287.11m on allowances, and N413.56m on trips.
Bayelsa State spent N35.1bn on recurrent expenditures, comprising N28.4m on utilities, N156.14m on refreshments and N279.99m on trips.
Similarly, Lagos State disbursed N189.62bn for recurrent expenditures, including N1.21m for refreshments, N383.12m for utilities, sitting allowances costing N52.79m and N633.37m on travels.
Borno spent N18.79bn, Cross Rivers (N17.44bn), Delta (N68.68bn), Ebonyi (N14.95bn), Edo (N32.32bn), Ekiti (N32.8bn), Enugu (N7.51bn) and Gombe with N20.89bn.
Within the same period, Jigawa State spent N15.52bn on the recurrent expenditures, Kaduna expended N34.69bn, Kano (N34.41bn), Katsina (N21.87bn), Kebbi (N11.67bn), Kogi (N37.4bn), Kwara (N24.34bn), Nasarawa (N18.61bn), Ogun (N47.12bn), Ondo (N31.12bn), Osun (N24.39bn), Oyo (N40.12bn), Plateau (N24.70bn), Zamfara (N13.46bn), and Taraba (N20.93bn).
Government spending has come under increased scrutiny in recent times, particularly in light of the country’s worsening economic challenges.
At different fora, financial experts have also raised concerns about states’ spending on recurrent expenditure, highlighting the need to embrace financial innovations.
A development economist, Aliyu Ilias, said many states had yet to fully develop themselves as industrialised and marketable to attract investors.
Ilias urged governors to develop an area of strength they could leverage to attract foreign investments.
He said, “Going forward, what they could do is identify one area of strength. For instance, Bayelsa has oil and should be able to attract investments. I think it is about policy. They should give the policy a chance that would allow people to come and invest. They should also create an attraction and develop an economic summit that will make sure they showcase and attract investors.”
