Federal, State Govts Expend N5.3trillion on Salaries, Overhead Costs

Almost half of the federal and state governments’ 2016 budget of N12.2 trillion will be expended on salaries and overheads, Daily Trust checks have revealed.

Both tiers of government have N6.1 trillion, but N5.33 trillion of the total (43.7 percent) will be spent on salaries and overheads.

The total amount set aside for capital projects by the central and the state governments this year is N5.04 trillion (41.3 percent); N3.3 trillion for the states and N1.75 trillion for the federal government.

The total budget carries a combined deficit of N4.5 trillion (36.9 percent), which is made up of N2.3 trillion for the states and N2.2 trillion for the federal government.

The federal government’s budget of N6.06 trillion has recurrent expenditure component of N2.65 trillion (44 percent) and N1.75 trillion (29 percent) for capital projects. The remaining balance of N1.66 trillion (27 percent) was for debt servicing and statutory transfers.

Capital spending by the 36 states is N3.3 trillion, which is 54 percent of their total budgets, while recurrent gulps N2.7 trillion (44 percent).

The 19 northern states have a total budget of N2.5 trillion, of which N1.4 trillion (56 percent) was for capital and N1.1trillion (44 percent) for recurrent. The northern states have a total deficit of N1.3 trillion (54 percent).

The 17 southern states have a total of N3.5 trillion budget comprising N1.9 trillion (54.2 percent) capital and N1.5 trillion (44 percent) recurrent. The southern states have a total deficit of N1.1 trillion (31percent).
States with low budgets

Six states with the lowest approved budgets are Ekiti (N67 billion), Niger (N74.7 billion), Gombe (N76.5 billion), Nasarawa (N77 billion), Enugu (N85 billion) and Yobe (N88.9 billion). They have a total budget of N469 billion, comprising N261 billion recurrent expenses and N210 billion capital vote. Their total deficits amount to N126 billion.
States with high budgets

The big spenders are Lagos (N662 billion), Akwa Ibom (N423 billion), Cross River (N350 billion), Rivers (N307 billion), Kano (N274 billion) and Delta (N268 billion) with N2.3 trillion between them or about one sixth of federal and states budget combined.

Of this sum, N1.4 trillion is for capital projects and N859 billion recurrent. But they have a combined deficit of N774 billion.
State-by-state analysis