The internally generated revenue of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory declined by nearly 12 percent in the first six months of 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

A report Tuesday by the statistics office said the 36 states collectively generated N612.87bn as IGR between January and June 2020.

The released data showed 11.7 per cent drop by N81 billion from the N693.9bn generated within the same period last year.

With 33.37 percent of the total IGR figure, Lagos generated the highest revenue (N204.5bn) while Jigawa recorded the least (N3bn).

Other top earners were Rivers, N64.59 billion; FCT, N35.2 billion; Delta, N30.8 billion; and Ogun, 23.7 billion. Those at the lower rungs included Yobe, N3.9 billion; Gombe, N3.8 billion; Adamawa, N3.75 billion; and Ekiti, N3.2 billion.

In its second quarter breakdown, the NBS report, which had inputs from the Federal Inland Revenue Service, showed that the states and the FCT generated N259.73 billion, representing a 26.5% decline in revenue.

“Similarly, the second quarter 2020 states and FCT IGR figure hits N259.73 billion compared to N353.14 billion recorded in Q1 2020. This indicates a negative growth of -26.5% quarter-on-quarter”, the report stated.

The report clarified that Nigerian states are in bad financial conditions which may hamper their qualification to take loans from the capital markets. This followed the decision by the Debt Management Office (DMO) to update its borrowing policy to forestall economic crisis on sub-national public debts.

Nigeria has been facing vast shortfalls in revenues since the coronavirus pandemic started forcing down the prices of crude. 

Crude revenues, which fund over 60 percent of the country’s budget, have slumped significantly since the outbreak, with a barrel hovering around $20 before gradually rising to just over $40 as of end of business on Tuesday.