₦airaland Forum

State of States 2025: Enugu emerges likeliest state to survive without FAAC allocations — BudgIT

•Lagos, Abia, Anambra, Kwara complete the top 5

Enugu State has emerged as Nigeria’s most fiscally viable subnational government, according to BudgIT’s 2025 State of States ranking.

The report showed that Enugu State is the most probable state to finance its operating expenses exclusively from internally generated revenue, IGR, and independent of allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.


However, whereas Enugu, Lagos, Abia, Anambra, and Kwara are the five top states likeliest to survive independent of FAAC receipts, Yobe, Benue, Jigawa, Kogi, and Imo are ranked as the least viable states currently, according to the report. The findings are based on Index A, which measures states’ ability to meet recurrent expenditure obligations using only IGR. The research methodology for Index A was the ratio of operating expenses to the state’s IGR. According to BudgIT, states that rank higher on this index exhibit greater financial autonomy and long-term viability.

“States that perform strongly on Index A have comparatively limited dependence on FAAC allocations and thus possess greater viability if they were to theoretically exist as independent entities,” the report stated.

The rankings show that Enugu State scored 0.68, implying that 68 percent of the state’s IGR would have catered to its operating expenses. The scores of the remaining four of the top five states are Lagos State (0.83), Abia State (1.56), Anambra (1.66), and Kwara (1.73).

In 2024, Rivers, Lagos, Ogun, Anambra, and Cross River made the top five rankings, thus the 2025 report represents for Enugu State a quantum leap in improved revenue collection and expenditure management and a major score for the Governor Peter Mbah-led administration.

Although Mbah met the state’s IGR at N30bn in May 2023, he ramped it up to N37bn by the close of the year and scaled it up to N180.05bn in 2024 by introducing technology, including e-payment, to plug leakages and sharp practices in revenue, as well as by widening the tax net to reduce tax and revenue evasion.

Meanwhile, whereas Enugu and Lagos lead in IGR ranking, fewer states meet the 50% threshold, as BudgIT’s 2025 State of States report shows that the number of states generating enough revenue to cover their operating expenses has reduced compared to 2024.

In 2024, Rivers (121.26 percent) and Lagos (118.39 percent) were the only two subnationals that generated more than enough IGR to cover their recurrent expenditure. Rivers is visibly missing in the 2025 analysis.

Thus, in 2025, this coveted group now includes Lagos (120.87 percent) and Enugu (146.68 percent), with Enugu taking the number one spot.

Related News
Gates Foundation commends BudgIT, calls for stronger subnational fiscal governance
Gov Otu presents N780.6bn 2026 budget of inclusive growth
Nigeria loses $6.8bn to oil production shortfalls in 8 months
According to BudgIT, 28 states still depend significantly on federal transfers and other external inflows to fund their operations.

On Index A1, which measures IGR growth, Enugu again leads the ranking, followed by Bayelsa, Abia, Osun, and Kano. These states recorded the strongest momentum in boosting internally generated revenues during the 2024 fiscal year.

At the bottom, Kebbi and Yobe recorded negative IGR growth, while Ebonyi, Bauchi, and Benue also posted weak performances. This represents a notable improvement from 2023, when seven states recorded negative growth.

“While it may be too early to celebrate, as the uptick could partly reflect increased inflows from federation transfers, it is a much better performance than the previous year,” BudgIT noted.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2025/10/state-of-states-2025-enugu-emerges-likeliest-state-to-survive-without-faac-allocations-budgit/amp/

It seems the East is now reviving and revving its engine bulk if the revival will be when Enugu Air goes full blast , Imo competes it's billion dollar gas projects , Abia and Anambra gets it right with their river ports and high speed rails projects

kettykin:
It seems the East is now reviving and revving its engine bulk if the revival will be when Enugu Air goes full blast , Imo competes it's billion dollar gas projects , Abia and Anambra gets it right with their river ports and high speed rails projects

What of Anambra and Ebonyi?

Anambra is among the top five , Ebonyi is still lacking behinde and needs to work hard

IGBOPROMISE1:
What of Anambra and Ebonyi?

This is coming from BudgIT not statinonsence that I don't know where they are getting their data from.
I say make I I highlight it.

Yerimo will be crying anytime he sees Alex Oti's Abia State in the good list of states doing well.

He is transferring Dapo Abiodun's failed leadership anger to his enemies.

May God help him and give him peace of mind at these trying period of his life.


🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

All the south east governors are doing great, except that of Abia state Alex otti

kettykin:
It seems the East is now reviving and revving its engine bulk if the revival will be when Enugu Air goes full blast , Imo competes it's billion dollar gas projects , Abia and Anambra gets it right with their river ports and high speed rails projects

There is no state that won't survive without FAAC No state

IMO can easily generate 1.6 trillion from housing tax
Anambra over 2 trillion
Abia over 2 trillion
Enugu over 1 trillion and ebonyi over 1 trillion

Igr is easy to generate but states just choose not to

kettykin:
It seems the East is now reviving and revving its engine bulk if the revival will be when Enugu Air goes full blast , Imo competes it's billion dollar gas projects , Abia and Anambra gets it right with their river ports and high speed rails projects

🤣🤣🤣 Deveropers are irredeemable. Goldplated hypocrisy. Absolute lack of self-awareness. So, IGR is now important? But I thought you lot were wailing all over the place that IGR means nothing? Pls you lot should never stop this entertainment (you actually can't stop, as no one can cheat nature).

Brenbentondiaz:
🤣🤣🤣 Deveropers are irredeemable. Goldplated hypocrisy. Absolute lack of self-awareness. So, IGR is now important? But I thought you lot were wailing all over the place that IGR means nothing? Pls you lot should never stop this entertainment (you actually can't stop, as no one can cheat nature).

Oga nobody said IGR is nothing.
The point is that you can't claim to have the biggest IGR and at the same time be the most indebted.
I remember how you people used to lie during Aregbesola that Osun IGR is bigger than that of the whole south East but the moment oil price dropped and allocation reduced,we know what happened.

Don't mind those hypocritists God will continue to disgrace them

overall90:
Oga nobody said IGR is nothing.
The point is that you can't claim to have the biggest IGR and at the same time be the most indebted.
I remember how you people used to lie during Aregbesola that Osun IGR is bigger than that of the whole south East but the moment oil price dropped and allocation reduced,we know what happened.