The Jigawa’s Entity: Please Be Your Own Judge -By Umar Farouk

It was occured that Jigawa State had a statutory revenue  projection of N50.83bn and earned statutory revenue of N58.98bn, which exceed the revunue projection by 16.03%. In the same vein, the state generated 39.39% more than its N2.64bn projected tax revenue. However, revenue from tax constituted only 3.67% of the total recurrent revenue of N100.37bn that accrued to the state in 2020. 

The breakdown of Jigawa’s tax revenue shows that while 99.37% of the N3.68bn generated was corporate taxes, but unfortunately the state could only raise the sum of N14.84m through direct assessment. Despite the government acquired a loan of N1.55bn to finance its 2020 budget deficit.

With those figures, Jigawa seems to be one of the few states to have experienced a negative year-on-year growth in it’s total debt stock. Meanwhile, the government spent N2.62bn on debt servicing, surpassing what it projected by 67.76%.

Well, we still ranked as one of the least indebted state in Nigeria, with total debt fell by 2.96% from N44.08bn in 2019 to N42.78bn in 2020. 
The government spent N62bn on recurrent expenditure and N41.92bn on capital expenditure, also are ascertained to have implemented 88.60% of the recurrent budget and 74.59% of the capital budget. 

Our Government seemed to have prioritized road infrastructure in 2020 as 99.37% of the N13.67bn approved for capital expenditure in the Ministry of Works was spent. Also, about 97.04% of the funds had set aside for the Rural Electricity Board was disbursed. 

Also, the budget allocation for capital spending in the Jigawa state agricultural sector in 2020 was N6.12bn, but, only the sum of N2.27bn was spent.

While 98.42% of the N1.15bn earmarked for capital spending on Jigawa Agricultural Development and Extension (JARDA) program was spent. Hospitals and Primary Healthcare Centres in 2020 disbursed 99.19% of the N1.62bn allocated to improving general hospitals and 97.77% of the N160m earmarked for upgrading Primary Healthcare Centres, and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology accessed 98.63% of their funds earmarked for capital expenditure.

So is the system really worked?

Jigawa today with 2.47 score is ranked the 5th State in Nigeria with highest inability to promote economic prosperity and meet their operating expenses.

With only 1.47 score make it 17th state on the list that are not sufficiently investing in building a sustainable future, with no financial strategy that prioritizes investment in the operating expenses over capital expenditure in the state.

Jigawa state is also 3rd state with highest poverty rate in Nigeria with 87.02%, 2nd with highest unemployment rate with around 79.98%. With -32.95% IGR  make it 4th  lowest State in Nigeria and also ranked 8th with lowest capital expenditure growth with -30%.

NB:  Most of these datas are extracted  from BudgIT and NBS respectively.

Umar wrotes form Jigawa, he can reaches via 07032843368.