Planning Revenues and Expenditures in Anambra State : Constraints and Solutions

This article focused on Anambra State planning of annual revenues and expenditure with a view to identifying major constraints to the use of budgets to foster development in the state. The study was designed as a descriptive survey. Data were sourced from the records of Anambra State Government. Time series was employed for the analysis of data. Results indicate that: (1) There was a conspicuous mismatch between allocations and sectoral financial needs,(2) Anambra State revenue base was fragile as reflected in excess of planned revenues over actual revenues,(3)Anambra State Government had adopted over-ambitious development plans in their annual budgets, (4) The State government budgets were inflationary,(5) There was a faster rate of growth of actual revenues over actual expenditures,(6) The thrust of the state budgetary policy was to generate sufficient revenues to meet increasing expenditures on development programmes. On the basis of the above-stated findings, some recommendations were made