Despite increased revenue from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, no fewer than nine states have reduced their wage bills in the first half of 2024, findings by Saturday PUNCH reveal.
Since the current administration ended fuel subsidy in May 2023, revenues to all tiers of government have increased. While some states have seen a 50 per cent rise in allocations, others have received about 100 per cent more.
However, despite the increased allocations, Saturday PUNCH discovered that nine of 35 states spent less on salaries and wages in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
The information is based on an analysis of the 2023 and 2024 budget implementation reports of 35 states obtained from Open Nigerian States, a BudgIT-supported platform for public budget data.
The data shows that despite receiving a total of N1.54tn in FAAC revenue during the reviewed period, the nine states reduced their wage bills by N17.06bn in 2024.
The states are
Akwa Ibom
Anambra
Bauchi
Borno
Delta
Zamfara
Oyo
Ondo
and Kano.
In 2023, the nine states received a total of N838.49bn from FAAC in the first six months, spending N199.71bn on salaries and wages. But in the first half of 2024, despite receiving over N1.5tn from FAAC, they spent N182.65bn on wages.
Oyo State recorded the highest wage reduction in Quarter 2, 2024, spending N32.66bn on salaries, which is N7.61bn less than the N40.27bn spent over the same period in 2023.
Kano had the second-largest reduction, cutting its wage bill by N3.77bn, compared to the N31.26bn it spent in 2023.
Wage reductions for other states include N471.11m (Akwa Ibom), N47.94m (Anambra), N689.99m (Bauchi), N415.31m (Borno), N1.24bn (Delta), N1.49bn (Zamfara), and N1.33bn (Ondo).
It was unclear why these states reduced their wage bills, as there were no reports of worker layoffs.
However, findings indicate that only 11 of the 36 state governments can independently pay workers’ salaries without relying on federal allocations.
The states, according to an analysis of their approved 2024 budgets, include Lagos, Kano, Anambra, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kwara, Osun, Ogun, and Zamfara.
Peoplesmind
