Lagos Atop As States’ IGR Drops By 11.7%
The Internally Generated Revenue of the states dropped to N612.87bn in the first six months of 2020 from N693.91bn in the corresponding period of 2019.
The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed on Tuesday in its report published on the ‘Internally Generated Revenue at state level for half year 2020’.
The NBS stated that Lagos State had the highest IGR with N204.51bn or 33.37 per cent of total figure recorded in H1 2020, followed by Rivers State with N64.59bn or 10.54 per cent; while Jigawa State recorded the least IGR of N3bn or 0.49 per cent.
Part of the report read, “The 36 states and FCT IGR figure hits N612.87bn in H1 2020 compared to N693.91bn recorded in 2019.
“This indicates a negative growth of -11.7 per cent year on year.
“Similarly, the Q2 2020 states and FCT IGR figure hit N259.73bn compared to N353.14bn recorded in Q1 2020.
“This indicates a negative growth of -26.5% quarter on quarter.”
According to the NBS, The FCT earned N35.2bn or 5.74 per cent; Delta earned N30.84bn or 5.03bn; Ogun earned N23.68bn or 3.86bn; Oyo earned N17.77bn or 2.9 per cent; Kano earned N17.5bn or 2.86 per cent; Akwa Ibom earned N16.21bn or 2.65 per cent; and Kaduna earned N14.54bn or 2.37 per cent.
Edo had N14.01bn or 2.29 per cent; Ondo had N13.58bn or 2.22 per cent; Enugu had N12.26bn or two per cent; Anambra had N9.54bn or 1.56 per cent; Plateau had N9.4bn or 1.53 per cent; Kwara earned N9.36bn or 1.53 per cent; and Osun earned N8.95bn or 1.46 per cent.
Cross River earned N8.05bn or 1.31 per cent; Imo had N7.73bn or 1.26 per cent; Kogi had N7.43bn or 1.21 per cent; Zamfara had N7.08bn or 1.16 per cent; Ebonyi had N6.33bn or 1.03 per cent; Abia had N6.18bn or 1.01 per cent; Nasarawa had N5.9bn or 0.96 per cent; while Bauchi had N5.75bn or 0.94 per cent.
Katsina earned N5.53bn or 0.9 per cent; Bayelsa had N5.38bn or 0.88 per cent; Borno had N5.37bn or 0.88 per cent; Benue had N5.534bn or 0.87 per cent; Sokoto had N4.59bn or 0.75 per cent; Kebbi had N4.38bn or 0.72 per cent; and Taraba had N4.06bn or 066 per cent.
Others are Niger with N4.01bn or 0.66 per cent; Yobe had N3.92bn or 0.64 per cent; Gombe had N3.78bn or 0.62 per cent; Adamawa had N3.75bn or 0.61 per cent; Ekiti had N3.2bn or 0.52 per cent; while Jigawa had N3bn or 0.49 per cent.
The President, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Olajumoke Simplice, said COVID-19 affected the states’ IGR.
She said, “The COVID-19 thing came and affected everybody. SMEs, big companies could not operate; there was no turnover. They were just paying salaries; some companies put their workers on half salaries as you know, the economy was locked down.”
A former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr Sam Nzekwe, said the country entered into the COVID-19 period with a weak economy.
He said, “The states shut down and revenue was not coming in.
“Even the revenue from the Federal Government came down and the states could not share what they normally shared.”
The Chief Executive Officer, Economic Associates, Dr Ayo Teriba, noted that the negative impact of the COVID-19 was not peculiar to the country alone.
He also said the drop in IGR was recorded in the first half and may not translate to inability to pay salaries in the next months.
An economist with the Lagos Business School, Dr Bongo Adi, stated that personal income tax formed the bulk of the state government revenue.
According to him, the declining IGR is as a result of high unemployment, poor sectorial performance of the economy and slashed salaries.
Adi said “Already, some states are not paying salaries and we will expect this situation to worsen.”
Adi, however, expressed optimism that that third quarter results would not be as bad as the second quarter due to the expected seasonal increase in demand.
