CBN Headquarters
By Obinna Chima
The gross federally-collected revenue stood declined by 11.2 per cent to N899.94 billion in April 2012, as against the N1 trillion realised by the government the previous month, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed.
The CBN revealed this in its month economic review posted on its website at the weekend. It, however, stated that the above mentioned amount generated in the month under review, exceeded the monthly budget estimate for 2012 by 11.4 per cent.
The decline, compared with the level in the preceding month, was attributed to the drop in both oil and non-oil revenue during the review month. It also showed that gross oil receipts, at N730.91 billion, constituted 81.2 per cent of the total revenue, but was lower than the receipts in the preceding month by 7.1 per cent.
It, however, exceeded the monthly budget estimate by 32.2 per cent.
The decline in oil receipts relative to the level in the preceding month was also attributed, largely to the decline in crude oil exports as a result of several operational issues and safety challenges in Bonga, Brass, Bonny and Qua Iboe terminals.
On the other hand, gross non-oil receipts, at N169.03 billion or 18.8 per cent of the total amount, was 25.6 and 33.6 per cent lower than the receipts in the preceding month and the monthly budget estimates, respectively. The decline relative to the receipts in the preceding month’s level, according to the banking sector regulator, largely reflected the decline in independent revenue of the federal government.
“On cumulative basis, total federally collected revenue for the period January to April 2012 was estimated at N3.881 trillion, reflecting an increase of 22.2 per cent over the actual receipts in the corresponding period.
“Of the gross federally-collected revenue during the month, the sum of N497.73 billion was transferred to the federation account for distribution among the three tiers of government and the 13 per cent Derivation Fund. The federal government received N233.96 billion, while the states and local governments received N118.67 billion and N91.49 billion respectively,” the report added.
It also indicated that growth in the major monetary aggregate was sluggish at the end of the month under review.
The report explained that broad money supply (M2), at N13.305 trillion, rose marginally by 0.3 per cent, compared with the growth of 0.9 and 2.1 per cent at the end of the preceding month and the corresponding month of 2011, respectively.
“The development was accounted for, largely, by the 5.3 per cent increase in foreign asset (net), which more than off-set the two and one per cent decline in domestic credit (net) and other asset (net) of the banking system, respectively
“At N13.407 trillion, aggregate banking system credit (net) to the domestic economy at end-April 2012 fell by two per cent, on month-on-month basis, in contrast to the increase of 1.6 per cent at the end of the preceding month. The development reflected, largely, the 78.1 per cent decline in (net) claims on the federal government,” it added.