On Friday, December 2, it was widely reported that the Nigerian president accused state governors of pocketing local government funds.
The President was quoted as stating that the state governors only remit half of the allocation they receive on behalf of local governments to council chairmen, who go on to deplete the allocations they receive.
Perhaps the president’s angst is coming from the fact that he granted local governments financial autonomy by executive order in 2020, and then in March 2022, the National Assembly voted to grant financial and administrative autonomy to local governments across all states. This law, among other things, allows local governments to have their own accounts instead of the joint account operated with the state government that had existed before.
Executive Order and Law notwithstanding, the financial and administrative destinies of local governments in Nigeria are still intertwined.
In this report, we take a look at how much the states received as local government allocations from FAAC between 2021 and 2022.
A review of FAAC documents published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), shows that in 2021, a sum of N1.719 trillion was disbursed as local government councils allocation.
The highest allocation was received by Lagos, with a sum of N114 billion disbursed through the year, the lowest allocation went to Bayelsa state with N20 billion received by the state.
In 2022, the sum of N1.412 trillion was shared between January and August. Lagos got the highest allocation of N96 billion, while Ebonyi got the lowest allocation of N22 billion.
How much has your state received?
What is the value of what the states received as local government allocation?
If Osun state decides to invest its own LG allocation on schools in the state, the money received in 2022 as local government allocation would build 45,136 blocks of three classrooms each. This is based on the state’s 2022 budget, which planned to build a block of three classrooms at N804,550.
Based on the details of the Ekiti state OCDS portal, where it awarded a sum of N1.8 million for drilling boreholes, the amount received as local government allocations in 2022 could provide 13,302 boreholes across local government areas in the state.
If the Imo state government decided to focus its own LG allocation on constructing markets and parks, which is one of the functions of local government councils, it would have had Fifty-three times its 2022 budget put at N723 million for market/park construction. Simply put, it would have had enough to implement its markets and parks construction budget and still have another over N37 billion left over from its local government councils allocation.
Assuming Niger state were to spend its own local government allocation on health centres, based on its award of N42.553 million for upgrading a PHC in the state, it could have upgraded hundreds of primary health centres across the state’s local government areas.
So ask your state government, what have you done with the local government FAAC allocation?