…report reveals the need for state governments to prioritise investment in healthcare
BudgIT, a civic technology organisation advocating for fiscal transparency and accountability in the public sector, on Tuesday launched its 2023 edition of the State of States report.
The annual report assesses and ranks all the 36 states long term fiscal sustainability from most sustainable to least sustainable.
In this year’s report, just like in 2020, 2021 and 2022, Rivers state maintained its first position among the 36 states in Nigeria to meet its operating expenses only with the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Surprisingly, Anambra joined Lagos, Kaduna, and Ebonyi to make it to the top five states this year.
Zamfara, Bayelsa and Benue ranked the least on the table.
This year’s edition with the theme, “Subnational Health delivery for improved economy” spotlights the state of healthcare delivery for improved economic development at state levels.
Sharing findings at the launch on Tuesday in Abuja,the Head, Research and Policy Advisory, Iniobong Usen, noted that the source of capability to mobilise revenue domestically weakened this year.
According to him, the reliance on federal transfers, the proportion of the total revenue that came from the federal government as statutory allocation, VAT or 13% derivation increased from 58.4 % to 61.45% this year.
He said about 16 states relied on federal transfers for atleast 70% of their total revenue while 32 states relied of federal transfers for about 50% of their total revenues.In terms of the cost of governance or overhead cost, 13 states increased their overhead cost by more than 40%.
States like, Katsina, Plateau, Zamfara and Jigawa depended on revenue from the federal government because their internally generated revenue (IGR) was poor.
Also in the report, Lagos, alongside Kaduna, Edo, and Cross River, have dollar-denominated debts in excess of $250m. Lagos’ foreign debt stock of $1.25bn surpassed the cumulative foreign debt stock of 24 states as of 31st December 2022, making it highly susceptible to exchange rate volatility.
He advised that to reduce their over-reliance on federal transfers, States need to broaden and diversify their tax base, which currently is predominantly PAYE-dependent.
“In light of the huge infrastructure deficit, states need to prioritise capital expenditure over recurrent, especially on areas that improve the ease of doing business, namely road, power, transport, digital and security infrastructure.
“What the state government needs to do with regards creating a physical space for investment in very critical social sectors like health and education is by reducing the cost of governance.
“For health, we looked at metrics that affects maternal and child health primarily. With under five mortality. Using the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for 2021. We saw that about one in every 10 children in Nigeria die before their fifth birthday. In the regional rating, its even worse off, one in seven children in the NorthWest, die before their fifth birthday.
“Government needs to prioritise investment in improving service delivery at the primary health care level”, he stressed.
Usen also stressed the need for collaboration among the states and the federal government for effective service delivery across the country.
On his part, BudgIT Global Executive Director, Olusegun Onigbinde stressed the need for communities to demand for improved Primary Health Care centres across the country.
