Cross River, a subnational entity in the south southern geopolitical zone of Nigeria, has ranked fifth in fiscal performance. This disclosure was made by BudgIT, a civic organisation which uses creative technology to simplify public information, in her recent State of States report released for 2024 NEGROIDHAVEN has confirmed.
Coming immediately after Kwara and before Kaduna, Cross River has been highlighted by the report as one of the few elite states with commendable fiscal performance, dwarfing other states across the country.
BudgIT scored Cross River with an index of 1.77, a figure which is comparatively high and suggests she is amongst states with ‘limited dependence on federally distributed revenue for their operations and thus have greater viability if they were to theoretically exist as an independent entity’, the report stated.
A contrast of subnational entities with relatively higher figures on the index reveals that these highly performing states have either worked harder on growing their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), giving the size of their operating expenses, or made significant effort at pruning their operating expenses.
According to BudgIT, the lower ranking states the worst being Imo, Taraba, Yobe, Bayelsa and Jigawa ‘also have more work to do to improve their business enabling environment and enhance their domestic resource mobilisation capacity’.
Cross River under Governor Bassey Otu has recorded significant improvement in her IGR. Recall that NEGROIDHAVEN had earlier reported this year that the state’s IGR surged from N6.3 billion in the first quarter of 2023 to N9.5 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2024, marking an impressive increase of 49% during the same period NEGROIDHAVEN has garnered.
According to the Executive Secretary of the CRIRS, the success in revenue generation was “primarily attributed to the continuous automation of processes and the expansion of the tax net into previously untapped areas. By focusing on reducing leakages in the system, the CRIRS has been able to enhance efficiency and maximize revenue collection”, Prince Edwin Okon disclosed.
However, there has been the question of a multiple tax regime in Cross River.
