Jigawa State, heavily reliant on federal allocations, has proposed a N698 billion budget for 2025 — nearly double its 2024 budget of N385 billion — despite falling significantly short of its revenue and spending targets in the third quarter of 2024.Umar Namadi, the state governor, presented the budget on Friday, allocating N90.76 billion (13%) for personnel costs and N63.69 billion for recurrent expenses due to N70,000 minimum wage law.Capital projects make up the highest percentage of the budget: a N534.76 billion (76%) allocation. On face value, this represents progress. But the state’s performance in 2023 and in the first nine months of 2024 may suggest otherwise.HOW HAS THE STATE PERFORMED SO FARIn the budget presentation speech, the state governor projected the state to exceed its revenue target by 110% and achieve 86% of its spending targets by the end of the year. He also predicted that recurrent and capital expenditure reach 94% and 83% respectively.READ MORE: Niger Proposes N1.2trn 2025 Budget Despite Multi-Billion UnderperformanceBut by September, Jigawa had only met 83.5% of its total revenue target, largely due to consistent federal allocations. As far as internally generated revenue (IGR) is concerned, the state fell short, collecting only N18.4 billion out of the N51 billion target.The revenue shortfall affected capital spending. Of the N254 billion set aside for 2024, only N102.2 billion had been spent by the third quarter. // Data for the chart
const ministries = [
“Ministry of Environment”,
“Ministry of Health”,
“Ministry of Basic Education”,
“Ministry of Higher Education”,
“Ministry of Justice”,
“Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture”
];
const allocatedBudget = [9000, 20000, 3800, 34600, 2000, 1000]; // in millions
const spentBudget = [353, 7500, 1000, 10000, 3, 249]; // in millions
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labels: ministries,
datasets: [
{
label: ‘Allocated Budget (in millions NGN)’,
data: allocatedBudget,
backgroundColor: ‘rgba(135, 206, 250, 0.7)’, // Sky Blue
borderColor: ‘rgba(135, 206, 250, 1)’,
borderWidth: 1
},
{
label: ‘Spent Budget (in millions NGN)’,
data: spentBudget,
backgroundColor: ‘rgba(255, 165, 0, 0.7)’, // Orange
borderColor: ‘rgba(255, 165, 0, 1)’,
borderWidth: 1
}
]
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responsive: true,
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position: ‘top’
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title: {
display: true,
text: ‘Jigawa State Ministries: Allocated vs Spent Budget (2024 Q3)’
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scales: {
x: {
ticks: {
maxRotation: 45,
minRotation: 45,
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y: {
beginAtZero: true,
title: {
display: true,
text: ‘Budget (in millions NGN)’
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}); Key ministries suffered the consequences of this underperformance. For instance, the Ministry of Environment received just N353 million out of its N9 billion budget (just 3.4%). Similarly, the Ministry of Health used only N7.5 billion of its N20 billion allocation.As for the Ministry of Basic Education, it only N1 billion out of its N3.8 billion allocation. The Ministry of Higher Education used N10 billion out of N34.6 billion.The Ministry of Justice spent just N3 million out of N2 billion, and the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture spent only N249 million of its over N1 billion budget.A HISTORY OF OVERPROMISINGDespite the governor’s optimistic outlook, there’s a troubling pattern that doesn’t bode well for the people of Jigawa. Looking at the state’s revenue performance each quarter, it seems unlikely the state will meet its IGR target by the end of the year. Out of a N52 billion target, the state collected only N1.3 billion in Q1, N3.1 billion in Q2, and N13.86 billion in Q3.A recent example of overprojection can be seen in Jigawa’s 2024 budget presentation. During the ceremony, the government claimed the state had achieved 50% of its capital expenditure, even though the actual figure was only 38%.The governor’s speech suggested the state would reach 82% of its total revenue, 96.3% of its recurrent spending, and 64.3% of its capital spending by the end of the year.The state indeed made 82.8% of its target revenue (N83.1 billion). But it only managed to spend 51.5% (N73.8 billion) of its capital appropriation and 83% of its recurrent budget.READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Devalued Naira, Inflation Undermine Reported 3.46% GDP GrowthThe consequences of this underperformance are clear. The state will struggle to meet its infrastructure goals and may have to rely heavily on loans to cover the gap if it wants to achieve any significant results.During the presentation, the governor promised the highest budget allocation to education (N184 billion). This seems like a positive move, but it loses its impact when you consider that, after nine months, less than 40% of the education budget has been spent.The post Despite Woeful Revenue Generation in 2024, Jigawa Proposes N698bn 2025 Budget appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.