₦airaland Forum

WEDNESDAY, 05 DECEMBER 2012 00:00 TELIAT SULE

The state governments in the North-East and North-West geopolitical zones were the most expensive states in Nigeria in 2011 when measured in terms of personnel and overhead costs, data compiled by BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU) have revealed.

The data was compiled from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Annual Report 2011.

Based on combined regional personnel and overhead costs, the six states in the North-East zone, comprising Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe spent N182 billion out of N360.6 billion realised as revenue for the year 2011, which means that 51 percent of the revenue made by the zone ended up as personnel and overhead costs.

Also, the North-West geopolitical zone, which is made up of Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara expended 44.8 percent as cost, which translated to N217 billion out of N485 billion total yearly revenue realised by state governments in the region. The North- Central was third with 41.4 percent of its 2011 receipts or N196 billion, incurred as the cost of governance. Cost of governance is the money spent on salaries and administrative expenses.

The South-West, South-East and South-South ranked 4th, 5th and 6th with 37.3 percent, 27.5 percent and 21.9 percent of their total annual revenues for 2011 ending up as the cost of governance. In other words, N230 billion, N89 billion and N251 billion respectively were the combined expenses incurred by state governments in the three geopolitical zones in the south.

On state-by-state analysis, the combined personnel and overhead cost of Kano State was the highest in the country, translating to 75 percent (N72.4 billion) of its 2011 total annual receipts, being used in paying personnel and overhead costs. The state was left with N24.6 billion for developmental projects. Kano was closely trailed by Bauchi (70%) and Plateau (68%) in that order, which amounted to N45.4 billion and N42.8 billion respectively of the total money received by the aforementioned state governments being spent on administrative costs. In the South-West region, Oyo State (63%) and Ogun State (57%) were the most expensive state governments, while Akwa-Ibom State was the least expensive (9%) among the states analysed.

If the level of expenses and internally generated revenue (IGR) remain unchanged for some time, only two states in Nigeria would comfortably pay their personnel and overhead costs without having to rely on the monthly federal allocation. These are Lagos and Abia States. In 2011, Lagos State realised N147 billion as IGR, whereas its combined personnel and overhead costs amounted to N70 billion, while Abia State made N31 billion as IGR whereas its combined personnel and administrative cost was N26 billion.

At the Annual Capital Market Committee retreat in Warri, Delta State recently, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi called for a reduction in the cost of governance. He said “at the moment, 70 per cent of the Federal Government’s revenue goes for payment of salaries and entitlement of civil servants, leaving 30 percent for development of 167 million Nigerians. That means that for every naira government earns, 70 kobo is consumed by civil servants”.

Another research report supports the observation made by the CBN governor about the high cost of governance. According to the research work of Stephen Ejuvbekpokpo published in the Global Journal of Management and Business Research in 2012 entitled “Cost of governance on economic development in Nigeria”, he found that “a unit rise in recurrent administrative expenditure would lead to a 0.52 unit fall in gross domestic product (GDP). Conversely, he found that a unit rise in capital administrative expenditure would cause gross domestic product to fall by 0.45 units”. Put in another way, if recurrent administrative expenditure rises by 100 percent, GDP will fall by 52 percent, just as if the capital administrative expenditure surges by 100 percent, GDP will fall by 45 percent.

The cost managing the economy formed part of the speech given by the Chairman of NESG, Foluso Phillips.

He told participants at the recent NES18 that The cost of managing the Nigerian Economy at present is larger than its productive base.

“We cannot defend an unsustainable situation. We cannot sustain this model. We all have to fix this problem faster than we are currently addressing it.”

Phillips, who was addressing dignitaries at the Nigeria Economic Summit (NES #18) at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja told the gathering that the current reality surrounding the cost of managing the country presents a situation where the three million or so people who work for the federal, states’ and local government, not forgetting the legislature, consume about 70 percent of the annual budget on salaries, allowances and overheads, while the rest of the 160 million odd Nigerians depend on the balance of 30 percent to provide the infrastructure, education, health and other services which most governments have a responsibility for.

In Dec 2011, CBN released a report which said that Only Abia and Lagos were capable of running their operations without depending on FG. Abia IGR for 2011 was put at 31Billion. The article was posted on nairaland but people avoided it because Abia was for once mentioned in positive light. One of these days, I am going to challenge anyone from outside Lagos state to name the industries in their states. I will name one large scale industry for one large scale and 4 medium scale to 1 medium scale and 10 small scale for 1 small scale. I will not even bother with the multitude on 5-15 men operations. I can name at least 15 industries around Umuahia alone pruducing paints, plastics, carpets and vegetable oil, bearing in mind that the brewery and ceramics are not dead forever. Aba is on its own lane.

To be continued next time I have free time on my hands. Resizing has reduced the picture quality. They look a lot sharper on my laptop

Market demolition continues, pedestrian bridge demolished. warri street side of demolition

Some street, central canal, Bende Road ( The other Road was actually Ikot Ekpene Road) and new estate at old timber

approach from the other side of Azikiwe road, Aguiyi Ironsi Estate by the right, what their uncovered drains look like and the

Orji Uzor Kalu road, BCA road, new access to azikiwe road

Otuka By pass ? Nkata Road ? road to some estate and towards CBN

Ongoing construction and some new roads in area

Timber shed, New umuahia area. Some govt buildings

Aba road, new timber shed, Ehimiri ? estate

Some umunna and ndi obia doing their thing in this estate. Madonna catholic hospital (Massive on three floors), the new estate at the old timber shed

Shopping centre, some industries still doing their thing, ceramics industry( I heard that Gov is tussling with the catholic church over the factory) and the road opposite the ceramic

From the old villa to Old Umuahia and Ishi court road and a new shopping centre at Old Umuahia

Emindu, please let me finish first

Old stream ( Nwa Nchara) with coal deposits, The steep hill where our fore fathers walked to fetch and wash. Going across rail and to old umuahia

Demolition still on. Brick building to hit the dust later. Forest reserve is a large stretch and passes our old villa spring water stream. Umuahia is generally on a hill and has lots of spring water streams. I decided to go to the old villa and the stream to see how far, now that people are bore hole dependent. Boy, they have built houses to the foot of the steep hill. You have to descend about 100m to the stream.

This is what inner streets look like in umuahia. Okpara square area and forest reserve

Bende road 1 , 2(High Court ?), Secretariat Road, New timber shed (Building materials market) Very large and good vision by governor. He is turning old timber to a housing estate

I saw a building project and I remembered spyder and I wandered into site. The owner said that his mission was to deck the 13 room, 3 reception house in three weeks. I said good luck to him and more grease. I was impressed by the undergrads on site making money while ASUU strike was on. The other guys on site had university ambition; no wonder we have high education rate in Abia.

A glimpse of Golden Guinea brewery, a reminder to TA Orji to do something and get at least 1000 guys employed.

Aba road and bende road

Umuahia main market undergoing demolition, Library avenue, Bank road (Factory Road)

Approaching town towards mission hill.

Just crossed the river and now in Abia, Umuahia suburb. Some housing development same area, approaching the express, express intersection and approaching town

Ahiara Mbaise, 7 & 1/2, 7 & 1/2 and Onu Imo ( Imo state end)

asha 80: yes you are right...sam mbakwe is the second bypass and not the one i earlier felt...which road did you use to burst out of emekuku?

MCC Uratta Road -egbu

This stretch takes you to Mbaise. The hill known as Ugwu nde nso is an accident prone zone. Ahiara Mbaise 2,3,4

asha 80: it must be the new sam mbakwe boulevard or road.

Sam Mbakwe is the 2nd bypass I think and it is yet to be completed.

Nnewi1stSon: pls tell me those pics arent of owerri, the place looks unkept!

OK, I won't tell you. I have some good pictures of Owerri but this is not for Owerri.

A shopping mall and office complex along the bypass. It's a twin structure and was at the ninth floor as at two weeks ago. Another by pass from opposite Alvan traversing behind Emmanuel college. Still got lots of Owerri pictures but lets leave town to Emekuku

Just after assumpta, a new by pass to Concorde and Nekede, after the by pass and remodelling of Imo hotels. we are still on our way to Umuahia.

asha 80: is this approaching owerri?

Yes. still trying to resize pics

So I actually dropped out of the sky and hit PH-Owerri road still under construction.

PhenomenonVFX: @Face maybe u should reduce the resolution of the pictures using a Photo editor like Photoshop, Gimp or Corel Draw or even Windows Picture Manager
I am eager to see what Orji has done to Umuahia. Maybe then I will reduce my compulsion to compare him to a brainless minotaur

Hey, I have reduced the sizes from 1500KB to about 180 Kb still no show.

Ndu_Chucks, n na geshua. Wana brief appearance ne. Ka sani nairaland ne ungwan mahukaci da gidan dan iska yenzu. Ba na so uwan zei zage ni anan. ( It's been long, hope I made sense)

As for those that have lived one hundred years in Umuahia; you don't know Face, I don't engage in useless arguments. If I post any picture that isn't from Umuahia please say so.

I am not attributing anything to Orji, I just took pictures of areas I went to. I wonder why anyone would still need an overhead bridge to cross to a dangerous demolition site.

Pictures not loading. Will be back to figure this out.