*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: ₦807.08 billion (signed 31 December 2024, revised up from ₦756 billion as presented)
- 2026 approved budget: ₦1.43 trillion as presented 22 December 2025 (signed 31 December 2025, reported as ₦1.4 trillion)
- Internally generated revenue (2023, the latest NBS state-level IGR report): ₦21.05 billion (₦15.62bn tax, ₦5.44bn MDA revenue)
- Debt stock (31 December 2025, provisional): ₦83,745,419,297.25 domestic plus US$117,076,815.81 external (US$56.73m multilateral, US$60.34m bilateral)
Note#
Imo raises the least internal revenue in the South-East — ₦21.05 billion in 2023, twenty-eighth nationally — and carries the region's largest external debt, the only state of the five whose bilateral loans exceed its multilateral ones. Its 2026 budget is roughly sixty-seven times its confirmed IGR, the widest revenue-to-budget gap in the region. The 2026 signing releases report ₦1.4 trillion where the presentation stated ₦1.43 trillion; both figures are given rather than reconciled. The monthly Federation Account receipt is omitted: no per-state line from a primary release was confirmed.
References
Sources#
- Imo State Government, 2025 and 2026 Appropriation Laws (signing releases, 31 December 2024 and 31 December 2025; presentation 22 December 2025)
- National Bureau of Statistics, Internally Generated Revenue at State Level (2023), published October 2024
- Debt Management Office, States and FCT Domestic and External Debt Stock as at 31 December 2025 (provisional)