Date: 2016-04-18

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has identified the eleven states of Ogun, Anambra, Borno, Edo, Bauchi, Abia, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba and Sokoto as the only states that recorded improvement in their 2014 records of revenue generation performance in 2015.

The NBS, in its latest Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, report released on Thursday, relied on records from the Joint Tax Board and states’ boards of internal revenue to note that the IGR earnings in 24 other states declined from the levels attained in the previous year.

While Ebonyi was the only state whose IGR records were not available, some of the 24 states that performed poorly included Kwara, Imo, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Yobe, and Zamfara.

Details of the performances of respective states showed that Ogun State’s IGR records were adjudged best, with a 49.42 per cent increase, almost doubling the N17.5bn revenue earned in 2014 to N34.6bn.

Anambra followed closely, with its IGR rising by about 29.32 per cent from N10.45bn in 2014 to N14.79bn, while Borno came third with a 21.8 per cent improvement from N2.76bn the previous year to N3.53bn.

Other states with improved performances included Edo (10.95 per cent), Bauchi (10.2 per cent), Sokoto (9.75 per cent), Taraba (8.57 per cent), Abia (7.33 per cent), Nasarawa (4.59 per cent), Niger (3.98 per cent) and Kogi (3.05 per cent).

Meanwhile, overall performance of the 36 states showed that the total IGR realised for the year dropped by 3.69 per cent, from N707.86 billion in 2014 to N682.67 billion.

Among the poor performers, the NBS showed that Kwara state topped, with its IGR declining massively by about 73.57 per cent, from about N12.46 billion realised in 2014, to about N7.18 billion in 2015.

The state was followed by Imo, whose IGR in 2014 dropped by 48.3 per cent, from N8.12 billion to N5.47 billion the following year. Yobe state came third with a 36.53 per cent drop in its IGR from N3.07 billion in 2014 to N2.74 billion in 2015.

Others included Bayelsa (25.76 per cent), Jigawa (23.46 per cent), Plateau (19.42 per cent), Ondo (16.05 per cent), Cross River (16.01 per cent), Zamfara (14.88 per cent), Adamawa (12.19 per cent), Kaduna (10.8 per cent) and Gombe (8.61 per cent).

Also included among the poor performers were Benue (8.55 per cent), Rivers (8.54 per cent), Katsina (7.46 per cent), Kebbi (6.73 per cent), Enugu (6.47 per cent), Akwa Ibom (5.99 per cent), Osun (5.45 per cent), Ekiti (4.99 per cent), Delta (4.93 per cent), Oyo (4.11 per cent), Lagos (2. 96 per cent), and Kano (0.37 per cent).

All other oil producing states of the Niger Delta, outside Edo and Abia states, could not meet their 2014 IGR levels, with their average earnings dropping by about 6.6 per cent.

In terms of IGR volume, Lagos state was ranked highest with a total of N268.23bn during the period under review, followed by Rivers with N82.1bn, and Delta, with N40.81bn.