The National Bureau of Statistics recently released the 2015 report on Internally Generated Revenue for the 36 states in Nigeria. The report revealed how states are faring with regards to how much they generated from revenue including PAYE, road taxes and direct assessment, despite the current economic situation. From the report, surprisingly, some states made headway while others experienced a significant fall in generated revenue.

Based on the report, Nigerian states generated a total of 682.7 billion in 2015 compared to 707.9 billion in 2014. This shows a 3.69 percent decrease in total revenue. It is surprising to note that despite the fall in oil price which affected the country in 2014, the states still generated N707.86billion but this fell to N682.67 billion in 2015. There are indications that this drop in revenue might also affect the budget of the country which is yet to be approved by the president due to grey areas.

How APC and PDP states fared

From the report, states which were ruled by candidates from the All Progressives Congress (APC) were among the major losers and gainers. States where the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was in power and were among the major losers did not perform too badly when compared to APC-led states. This hints at the possibility of a stronger tax administration in the PDP states compared to others.

Regional breakdown

According to the report, the highest revenue was generated from the south-western states, with Lagos contributing over 60 percent of the total revenue. The region was followed by the South-South and South-East regions respectively.

The top gainers

The top five gainers include Anambra, Bauchi, Edo, Ogun and Borno state. It is surprising to see the revenue generated from Borno state, which has been dealing with the Boko Haram insurgency, increase by 21.80 percent. The revenue generated by Ogun state, which was also among the top five in 2014, increased by 49.42 percent in 2015.

The biggest losers

Kwara was the biggest loser among all the states when compared with the revenue it generated in 2014. The state’s revenue fell by 73.57 percent followed by Imo, Yobe, Bayelsa and Jigawa states. It is worthy to note that these states are not affected by the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency.