Banditry plunges 77% of Northern states into poverty, IGR decline

In the midst of an increase in banditry, at least 77 percent of the states in the North-Central and North-West struggle with low revenue, weak foreign investments, and high debt loads.

Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Sokoto, and Kaduna are among the states fighting banditry, according to research by The PUNCH.

However, disregarding the Federal Capital Territory in the North-Central, there are 13 states in total for the North-Central and North-West.

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This indicates that just 10 of the 13 states—roughly 76.92 percent of all the states—were included in our analysis.

A quick examination of the states’ internal revenue production revealed that they performed relatively poorly when compared to the other federation states.

The states’ internally produced revenue (IGR) for the first quarter of 2021 was N43.39 billion, which was only around 34.24 percent of Lagos State’s IGR for the same period.

By the first quarter of 2023, the states’ combined IGR climbed slightly to N55.51 billion, which was only slightly more than Lagos State’s IGR during the same period (30.85%).

However, Sokoto was excluded from the IGR calculation due to the lack of data for Q1 2023.

A breakdown showed that in the first quarter of 2023, Zamfara State generated only N4.28bn in IGR. This was a sharp contrast to figures generated by other states in the country such as Delta (N40.51bn), Kwara (N18.48bn), Edo (N18.84bn), and Anambra (N13.03bn).

With four quarters in a year, it is presumed that states should have generated one-quarter (25 percent) of their projected revenue in each quarter.

From the available data, many states in the North-West and North-Central fell short of the 25 percent revenue projection for the first quarter.

At least 60 percent of both North-Central and North-West states did not attract any foreign investments in two years due to the rising cases of banditry.

Furthermore, states battling banditry are Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Sokoto and Kaduna.

However, there are 13 states in total for North-Central and North-West, excluding the Federal Capital Territory in the North-Central.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that out of 10 states with cases of banditry, only four attracted foreign investments between the first quarter of 2021 and Q1 2023.