Economic Confidential

Federation Account: Richest and Poorest State beneficiaries in 2012
Following a painstaking research, the always authoritative and factual Economic Confidential can now reveal that a total sum of N8.8 trillion was disbursed to the three tiers of Nigerian government from the Federation Account between January and December 2012 from the statutory and VAT allocations.  This amount excluded other allocations that were occasionally made to the states from Excess Crude Account, Domestic Crude Account, SURE-P, NNPC Refund and foreign exchange differentials.
 
But a careful scrutiny of the detailed disbursements showed also that the states can be conveniently categorized into the ‘boys and men’s clubs’ with a few of the states taking hundreds of billions, others taking a little less and the majority going home with ‘paltry’ amounts.
 
Akwa Ibom State appears to be the ‘king of boys’, coasting home with a princely N217bn followed by Rivers which received N177bn and Lagos N168bn in the 12 months of 2012.
 
A table of allocation compiled by Economic Confidential shows Ebonyi State, Gombe State and Nassarawa State emerging the poorest states with total allocations of N45bn Gombe N48bn and  N49bn respectively .
 
The allocation to the states included the share to their respective local government councils which they cornered since almost all the funds to the councils are controlled by governors who determine the administrators at the third tiers of government.
 
 It is instructive to point out also that this amount was solely from the federation account as none of the states contributed to their individual earnings from their internally generated revenue. The receipt came mostly from oil revenue, customs duties and VAT receipt.
 
The disparity in the allocations to the states came as a result of the indices developed by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) upon which the monthly disbursements are made by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) chaired by the Minister of State for Finance.
 
The indices include population, land mass, derivation, equality, internally generated revenue and other social development factors like school enrolment, hospital beds and road networks. Click Here to View Table