*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: ₦1.188 trillion (signed 2 January 2025, 48 hours after presentation)
- 2026 approved budget: ₦1.84 trillion (signed 3 September 2026; ₦1,854,248,734,475.76 as presented 10 July 2026)
- Internally generated revenue (2023, the latest NBS state-level IGR report): ₦195.41 billion (₦186.97bn tax, ₦8.45bn MDA revenue)
Note#
Rivers raises the third largest internal revenue of any state after Lagos and the FCT, and 96 per cent of it is tax rather than agency fees — the most tax-driven revenue base in the federation outside Lagos. The 2025 budget was signed two days after presentation, during the dispute over which faction constituted the State House of Assembly, so its passage is recorded here as reported rather than verified against the state gazette. The 2026 budget was presented on 10 July 2026 and signed on 3 September 2026, after the Assembly dispute was settled. Debt figures are omitted: the state's line in the December 2025 DMO tables was not readable in this pass, and later press aggregations belong to a different reporting date.
References
Sources#
- Rivers State Government, 2025 Appropriation Law (signing, 2 January 2025) and 2026 Appropriation Law (presented 10 July 2026, signed 3 September 2026; Rivers Ministry of Information and Punch, 4 September 2026)
- National Bureau of Statistics, Internally Generated Revenue at State Level (2023), published October 2024