Nigerians Lament Worsening Hardship As Report Shows Governors Spent N9.78trn in 2023

Diverse reactions from concerned citizens of Nigeria have been trailing the latest report of government spendings in 2023 by GovSpend, an organization that tracks earnings and expenditures of governments of the country.

GovSpend, in its State of States 2024 report that captures various spendings of state governments last year, disclosed that a total of N9.78 trillion was spent by the 36 States of the country in 2023.

It added that the N9.78 trillion was higher than the N8.07 trillion that the entire 36 states of the federation spent in 2022.

Out of this total sum, Lagos State alone is said to have spent over N1.49 trillion, which was 12.82% of the total expenditure of the 36 states.

According to the report, personnel costs rose to N1.99tn from N1.75trillion in 2022, overhead rose to N1.52tn from N1.24trillion, while Capital expenditure moved from  N3.47tn to N4.04trillion.

The summary of the report reads, “All 36 states spent N9.78 trillion from N8.07 trillion, 21.32% more than what was spent in 2022.

“Lagos State alone spent over N1.49 trillion, which was 12.82% of the total expenditure of the 36 states.

Meanwhile, Personnel costs rose to N1.99tn from N1.75tn in 2022, a 13.51% increase

Overhead rose to N1.52tn from N1.24tn, a 23.25% increase.

Capital expenditure moved from  N3.47tn to N4.04tn, a 16.45% increase.”

Reacting to a network of young Nigerians promoting good governance and citizen engagement, Enough Is Enough (EIE), has decried worsening hardship in the country despite higher spending by the government.

The group noted with dismay that State Governments have not been generating revenues to support what they have been collecting as allocations from the Federal Government, saying that the development would not make any government take citizens out of poverty.

According to the network, 32 out of 36 rely on Federal Allocation for their expenditures and have been doing close to nothing in terms of Internally generated revenue.

“This year, we have seen some considerable growth of government spendings in terms of total revenue. However, we have not seen commensurate Internally Generated Revenue across board. 32 Nigerian States out of 36, relying on Federal Allocation for at least 55 per cent of their total revenue. That means that barely all the states in Nigeria needed the Federal Government to support at least half of their spendings,” the organisation stated.