No fewer than 13 State Houses of Assembly across the country have injected over ₦1 trillion into the 2026 budgets of their states, following legislative reviews and amendments to appropriation bills presented by governors.
The figure emerged from an analysis of the 2026 budget proposals submitted by governors and the final appropriation laws passed by the assemblies, with the gaps reflecting legislative additions and adjustments.
The development comes amid long-standing and persistent public calls for a reduction in the cost of governance, driven by concerns over mounting fiscal strain and the huge debt-servicing burden facing sub-national governments.
Yearly, state governors prepare annual budget proposals, usually tagged appropriation bills, and transmit them to the Assembly for consideration, amendment and approval.
The proposals are broadly split into recurrent expenditure, which covers personnel costs, overheads, pensions and routine government operations, and capital expenditure, which caters for infrastructure and development projects.
In the first half of 2025, about 20 states of the federation borrowed roughly ₦458bn, according to their second-quarter 2025 budget implementation reports.
Within the same period, the states spent about ₦235.58bn on servicing external debt, representing a sharp increase of ₦95.65bn, or 68.4 per cent, compared with the ₦139.92bn recorded in the corresponding half of 2024.
This year, 10 states are also planning to source about ₦4.287tn, largely from loans and grants, to fund various budget deficits.
Owing to rising concerns over state insolvency, there have been repeated calls for assemblies to cut the cost of governance, particularly by trimming budget sizes to rein in deficits often financed through foreign and domestic borrowing.
However, this has not been the case, as lawmakers in some states have continued to jack up budget estimates submitted by governors, further deepening annual deficits.
In 2025 alone, about 15 state assemblies increased their states’ budgets by a staggering ₦470bn, escalating expenditure for the year despite persistent calls for restraint.
The states that expanded their budgets include Bayelsa, Ondo, Gombe, Edo, Oyo, Osun, Katsina, Ebonyi, Delta, Taraba, Zamfara, Plateau, Bauchi, Borno and Cross River.
As of the time of filing this report, the 2026 budgets of about 30 states had been signed into law, with roughly four still undergoing legislative scrutiny and assessment.
Nevertheless, no fewer than 13 of the 36 state assemblies have collectively added about ₦866bn to their states’ budgets for the year, with some of the increments channelled into recurrent spending.
While Borno, Ebonyi, Kwara and Sokoto assemblies are yet to pass their states’ budgets, about 17 others did not alter the size of the appropriation bills submitted by governors.
They include Oyo, Enugu, Kogi, Plateau, Katsina, Kaduna, Abia, Imo, Adamawa, Edo, Bauchi, Jigawa, Ogun, Kebbi, Ekiti, Yobe and Zamfara.
The PUNCH