*A state budget in Nigeria is a statement of intent, not a record of spending. The number signed in December is routinely revised mid-year and rarely implemented above 70% on the capital side. Read the figures below as the size of the claim, and the IGR line as the size of what the state can raise without Abuja.*
The numbers#
- 2025 approved budget: ₦538.5 billion (signed 24 December 2024)
- 2026 approved budget: ₦780.59 billion as presented 28 October 2025 (signed 26 December 2025)
- Internally generated revenue (2023, the latest NBS state-level IGR report): ₦31.56 billion (₦23.70bn tax, ₦7.86bn MDA revenue)
- Debt stock (31 December 2025, provisional): ₦137,355,748,136.87 domestic
Note#
Cross River carries the heaviest domestic debt of the three eastern Niger Delta states while running the smallest budget of the three — the highest debt-to-budget ratio in the group. The 2026 figure is the amount presented: the release announcing assent on 26 December 2025 did not state the final sum, and a supplementary appropriation raising the 2026 total was signed in September 2026 without a confirmed revised figure. External debt is omitted here: only a secondary analysis of the DMO table, not the DMO line itself, was readable in this pass.
References
Sources#
- Cross River State Government, 2025 Approved Budget and 2026 Appropriation Bill (presentation 28 October 2025; signing releases, 24 December 2024 and 26 December 2025)
- National Bureau of Statistics, Internally Generated Revenue at State Level (2023), published October 2024
- Debt Management Office, States and FCT Domestic Debt Stock as at 31 December 2025 (provisional)