The governor of Anambra state, Charles Soludo, has claimed in a recent interview on national television that the state ranks among the top five Nigerian states in the aspect of fiscal sustainability.
He made the statement while speaking on the scorecard of his administration and the 2024 budget of the state.
In his response to the question regarding the debt profile of the state, Soludo said, “I would probably be the first governor in the country that the parliament (the previous parliament) approved for him to borrow and he refused to borrow. I’m now in the second year.. will complete my second year in office by March. They still also authorized in the budget for me to borrow and I still refused to borrow. 20 months down the line, we still have not borrowed. I am very bullish about fiscal management, ensuring sustainability.
“The legacy that I would like to leave is to leave a fiscally sustainable state. So we look at our numbers and say whether we are on the part of sustainability or not. In the recent publication by BudgIt about the sustainability of the states, Anambra now ranks among the top five.”
Claim: Anambra ranks among the top five Nigerian states in fiscal sustainability
Verification
To confirm the authenticity of the claim made by the governor of Anambra state, we checked the latest report by BudgIT and here is what we found.
The State of States is an annual report by BudgIT, a civic organisation, that assesses and ranks the fiscal performance of all 36 states in Nigeria from the most sustainable to the least sustainable.
The 2023 edition of the State of States report was themed “Subnational Healthcare Delivery for Improved Economic Development”.
The report shows that Anambra ranks number 5 on the fiscal performance index based on 2022 data. The first four states were Rivers, Lagos, Ebonyi and Kaduna respectively.
Anambra was ranked number 5 on Index A, which looks at the ability of states to meet their recurrent expenses with only their internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
On Index B where the ability of the states to cover all operating expenses (recurrent expenses) and loan repayment obligations with their total revenue (IGR, Aids and Grants) was assessed, Anambra was ranked number 3.
Anambra clinched the 12th position on Index C where the debt sustainability of the 36 states was assessed.
Also, Anambra was ranked number 5 on Index D which evaluates the degree to which each of the states is prioritizing capital expenditure with respect to their operating expenses.
Verdict: TRUE
The 2023 edition of the State of States report by BudgIT shows that Anambra ranks among the top five Nigerian states on the fiscal sustainability performance index.
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