…as 30 states spent 6.27trn in 6 months
Cross Rivers, Taraba, Benue states spent over 70 percent of their first half 2025 budget on recurrent expenditure, while capital projects gulp less than 30 percent of their budgets.
Meanwhile, Imo, Abia and Bayelsa states spent the least, below 32 percent on recurrent expenditure, while capital expenditure gulp over 69 percent of pro rata budget.
According to the Agora policy document analysed by BusinessDay, the implementation of recurrent expenditure has reached 80.7 percent in 30 states, while capital expenditure stood at 48 percent.
In the first half of 2025, 30 out of the 36 states combined achieved a budget implementation rate of 59 percent.
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Of 10.67 trillion budgeted for the period, the states spent N6.27 trillion, N3.43 trillion was allocated to capital projects, while N2.84 trillion covered recurrent costs.
“In the first half of 2025, 12 of the 30 states implemented less than 50 percent of their expenditure budgets, while only 5 states exceeded an 80 percent implementation rate. Bayelsa (98.8 percent) and Lagos (85.3 percent) led the rankings, whereas Niger recorded the lowest at 22.9 percent.
“Among the 30 states, 16 achieved a recurrent expenditure implementation rate above 80 percent, while Zamfara was the only state yet to reach 50 percent for the half-year budget period,” the Agora policy report stated.
Also, 18 states have implemented less than 50 percent of their capital budgets for the half-year period, with only Bayelsa and Lagos surpassing 80 percent in capital spending implementation.
