Zamfara State’s fiscal performance has shown remarkable improvement, moving from the 36th position in 2023 to the 17th position in 2025 under Governor Dauda Lawal, according to a report by BudgIT.
In its 2025 State of States ranking, BudgIT revealed that Zamfara’s non-tax revenue, which had declined by 71.31% from N3.73 billion in 2021 to N1.07 billion in 2022, “increased by 593.46% in 2023, reaching N7.42 billion, and further rose to N12.91 billion in 2024 under Lawal’s administration.”
According to BudgIT, licences grew by 25.30%, from N18.18 million in 2021 to N22.78 million in 2022, and further increased by 5,921.47% and 44.53% in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
The civic-tech organisation’s report also showed that revenue from fees decreased by 93.90% between 2021 and 2022, but subsequently increased by 3,610.57% and 88.24% in 2023 and 2024, moving from N82.44 million in 2022 to N3.06 billion in 2023 and N5.76 billion in 2024. However, fines declined by 78.15% in the state.
“There were notable changes in Zamfara’s health and education spending between 2022 and 2024. While health sector spending and spending per capita increased over the years, the overall spending performance declined significantly. With a spending of N4.29 billion in 2022, it rose to N5.74 billion in 2023 and further increased to N11.88 billion in 2024.”
According to the report, spending per capita increased from N785 in 2022 to N1,017 in 2023 and N2,037 in 2024, respectively.
BudgIT stated that Zamfara’s fiscal performance improved by 13 steps in its ranking, moving to 17th position. The state had ranked 26th in 2024 and 36th in 2023 when Governor Lawal assumed office.
he report further revealed that Zamfara’s recurrent revenue increased by 182.34%, from N87.44 billion in 2023 to N246.88 billion in 2024, while its total revenue recorded a year-on-year growth of 117.68%, rising from N144.95 billion to N315.53 billion.
When the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is compared to total revenue, the state’s IGR in 2024 stood at 10.31% of the total.
BudgIT explained that the favourable fiscal performance index ranking indicates that Zamfara is among the few states that “have comparatively limited dependence on federally distributed revenue for their operations and therefore possess greater viability if they were to exist as an independent entity theoretically.”
The report also noted improvements in Zamfara’s IGR index. “Looking closely at the states’ IGR, Zamfara generated N25.46 billion in 2024, just 14.86% higher than the N22.16 billion recorded in 2023. In 2024, Zamfara’s IGR ranked 25th among the 36 states in the federation.”
It further stated that the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) revenue, one of Zamfara’s primary income sources, “increased by 239.18% from N65.28 billion in 2023 to N221.42 billion in 2024.”
“The IGR per capita stood at N4,364 as of the end of 2024,” BudgIT added, noting that the state has managed to improve on its IGR, moving from a record of N2.74 billion in 2015 to N25.46 billion in 2024 under Governor Lawal.”
