By Aminu Abubakar
A review of Kebbi State‘s approved 2025 budget by SolaceBase has shown that the state plans to spend ₦580 billion in the 2025 fiscal year.
However, an in-depth analysis of the budget reveals a significant gap between revenue generation and proposed expenditure, raising concerns about the state’s fiscal sustainability.
Revenue vs. Budget Deficit
The state projects to generate ₦25 billion in internally generated revenue (IGR), which accounts for only 4.31% of the total proposed budget.
This means that if Kebbi State were to rely solely on its IGR, it would only be able to implement 4.31% of its budget while struggling to fund 95.69% of planned expenditures.
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Furthermore, the personnel cost alone is pegged at ₦58.6 billion, which is more than double the total expected IGR for 2025. This implies that the state would be unable to pay salaries if it depended exclusively on IGR.
In 2024, it projected N18 billion as internally generated revenue but actually generated only N7 billion.
Debt Servicing Burden and Debt Burden
The budget also reveals a growing debt servicing obligation.
Out of the expected ₦25.9 billion in IGR, ₦11.3 billion is allocated for debt servicing, 43.2% of the internally generated revenue.
This high debt servicing ratio indicates that a significant portion of the state’s independent revenue is already committed, leaving little room for development projects.
In 2024, between January to September the state spent N3.4 billion on debt servicing. It would mean that out of the N7.8 billion generated internally in the same period, the state spent 43.5% on debt servicing.
According to the data provided by the Debt Management Office, Kebbi owes N15 billion domestically as of September 2024.
On external fronts it owes $57.275 million as of June 2024.
Capital Expenditure Constraints
Kebbi State has earmarked ₦313 billion for capital expenditure in 2025, but with only **₦25 billion in projected IGR, it would achieve a mere 8.27% of its capital budget if it relied solely on internally generated funds. This suggests that a significant portion of the capital expenditure will likely depend on federal allocations, loans, or external funding sources.
Kebbi State: Big Budgets, Poor Actuals
A review of Kebbi State’s 2024 budget performance suggests a pattern of ambitious budgetary projections but underwhelming actual revenue and expenditure.
Personnel Costs: ₦40 billion was budgeted for salaries and wages in 2024, but actual expenditure between January and September was just ₦17 billion, falling significantly short of the target.
Capital Expenditure: The state planned to spend ₦206 billion on capital projects, but as of September 2024, actual spending stood at just ₦58 billion—a performance rate of approximately 28.2%.
The trend suggests that while Kebbi State consistently announces high budget figures, actual implementation often lags due to revenue shortfalls.
Funding Gaps and Future Implications
The 2025 budget structure indicates that Kebbi State will need to rely heavily on federal allocations, grants, and borrowings to finance its expenditures. The heavy dependence on external funding raises concerns about the state’s long-term fiscal sustainability and debt burden.
If Kebbi State continues this pattern of high budgets with low actual implementation, it may struggle to deliver on key infrastructure and development goals.
Analysts suggest that the state needs to diversify its revenue sources and enhance IGR collection efficiency to reduce dependency on external funding.
Kebbi’s Many Developmental Challenge
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics in the 2022 multidimensional poverty index shows that the state has 1.91 million poor persons.
45% of children in the state are also deprived access to school attendance, another 79% of households in the state lack access to sanitary facilities.
In Kebbi state, 68% of the residents are denied access to clean drinking water.
In November 2024, Kebbi State was reported to have suffered from a Cholera outbreak.
The state government had noted that no fewer than twenty-four people have died from a cholera outbreak that ravaged ten local government areas of Kebbi State, with eight hundred and seventy-five cases recorded in these areas.
The Director of Public Health in the State Ministry of Health, Abubakar Bagudu Muhammad, while speaking with newsmen, stated that the state government has taken measures to tackle the escalating cases of the disease across the state.
He noted that out of the 24 deaths recorded, 13 were from the Suru local government area.
He revealed that the cholera outbreak is a result of poor environmental sanitation, flooding, lack of potable water, and open defecation.
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