State Govs Spend Over ₦900 Billion On Refreshments, Others In Three Months

State governments in Nigeria spent over ₦900 billion on recurrent expenditures in the first quarter of 2024.
Data sourced from budget implementation reports accessed through Open Nigerian States.
Expenditure categories included refreshments, sitting allowances, travel expenses, utilities, and more.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that in the first three months of 2024, no fewer than 30 state governments across Nigeria allocated a total of ₦986.64 billion towards recurrent expenditures.

These expenses encompassed various categories, such as refreshments, sitting allowances, travel costs, utilities, and more.

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The data was sourced from budget implementation reports accessed through Open Nigerian States, a platform supported by BudgIT.

However, budget implementation data for six states—Benue, Imo, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, and Yobe—were not available for this period.

According to the analysis conducted by Punch, the 30 states collectively spent ₦5.1 billion on refreshments for guests, ₦4.67 billion on sitting allowances for government officials, ₦34.63 billion on both local and foreign travel expenses, and ₦5.64 billion on utility bills. This totaled ₦50.02 billion for the first quarter of 2024.

The utility expenses covered various services such as electricity, internet, telephone charges, water rates, and sewerage charges.

Additionally, the states disbursed ₦405.77 billion as salaries to their employees during this period.

Other recurrent expenditures outlined in the report included costs related to foreign and domestic travel, internet access fees, entertainment, food, honorariums/sitting allowances, wardrobe allowances, telephone bills, electricity charges, stationery, anniversaries/special days, welfare programs, aircraft maintenance, and more.

In the first three months of 2024, Abia State spent ₦10.92bn on its recurrent expenditures, including ₦165.38m on refreshments and feeding, ₦39.26m on utilities, ₦214.57m on sitting allowances, and ₦127.1m on local and foreign travels, among miscellaneous expenses.

During this period, Adamawa State expended ₦23.7bn on recurrent expenditures, with ₦287.61m spent on refreshments and feeding, ₦109.62m on utilities, ₦79.57m on sitting allowances, ₦768.77m on local and foreign travels.

For Akwa Ibom State, recurrent expenditure gulped ₦46.85bn, which included N4.46m on refreshments and feeding, ₦223.32m on utilities, ₦6m on sitting allowances, ₦214.61m on local and foreign travel.

Anambra State disbursed N9.91bn for recurring expenses, with ₦78.18m on refreshments and feeding, ₦32.52m on utilities, ₦42.09m on sitting allowances, ₦188.39m on local and foreign travel.

Also, recurrent expenditures cost Bauchi State Government ₦35.75bn, with ₦397.58m going to utilities, ₦50.8m on refreshments, ₦287.11m on allowances, and ₦413.56m on trips.

Bayelsa State spent ₦35.1bn on recurrent expenditures, comprising ₦28.4m on utilities, ₦156.14m on refreshments, and ₦279.99m on trips.

Similarly, Lagos State disbursed ₦189.62bn for recurrent expenditures, including ₦1.21m for refreshments, ₦383.12m for utilities, sitting allowances costing ₦52.79m and ₦633.37m on travels.

Borno spent ₦18.79bn, Cross Rivers (₦17.44bn), Delta (₦68.68bn), Ebonyi (₦14.95bn), Edo (₦32.32bn), Ekiti (₦32.8bn), Enugu (₦7.51bn) and Gombe with ₦20.89bn.