Says govt revenue unpredictable
Chineme Okafor in Abuja
A report released yesterday by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) showed that the total revenue shared by the three tiers of government in Nigeria – federal, state and local governments– in the first half of 2019 slumped by 2.61 per cent or N104 billion from the corresponding period in 2018.
The report, “Analysis of FAAC Disbursements for H1 2019,” also noted that the profile of the quarterly revenue earned by the federal government was unpredictable, describing it as being ‘zigzag’ because of the volatile nature of commodity revenue the government heavily relied on.
The NEITI quarterly report, which was obtained by THISDAY, stated that an analysis of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) figures showed that total disbursements in the six months of the year was N3.842 trillion as against N3.946 trillion disbursed in the same period in 2018, indicating a shortfall of N104 billion.
“The total amount of disbursements by FAAC in the first half of 2019 was N3.842 trillion. This was 2.61 per cent lower than the N3.946 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2018 but 37.79 per cent higher than the N2.788 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2017,” said the report.
It explained that in the second quarter of the year as well, the FAAC recorded a 4.71 per cent drop in its total disbursement, which was N1.913 trillion as against the N2.008 trillion shared in the second quarter of 2018.
According to it, a breakdown of the FAAC disbursement showed that the federal government received N1.599 trillion; the 36 states got N1.335 trillion while the 774 local governments shared N792 billion during the period under review.
Also, the total FAAC disbursements in the second quarter of 2019 were the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2017.
“The quarterly FAAC disbursements from Q1-2013 to Q2-2019 reveal that the total disbursement of N1.913 trillion in the second quarter of 2019 was the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2017 when N1.700 trillion was disbursed.
“The figure shows that three quarters of 2018 had total disbursements above N2 trillion,” said NEITI in an accompanying statement on the report, which was signed by its Director, Communications, Dr. Orji Ogbonnanya Orji.
The organisation said it combined new data for the 2019 second quarter with previously examined data for the 2019 first quarter to get the latest figures, adding that while there was an increase in FAAC revenues in the first half of 2018 and 2017, they were not sustained in 2019.
It also added that the analysis used came from data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and FAAC.
“In the first half of 2019, total disbursements to the federal government were N1.599 trillion. This amounted to 41.61 per cent of the total amount disbursed over this period.
“This amount was lower than the N1.652 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2018 but higher than the N1.098 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2017.
“Thus, disbursements to the federal government in the first half of 2019 were 3.22 per cent lower than disbursements in the first half of 2018 but 45.56 per cent higher than disbursements in the first half of 2017,” it added.
It stated that total disbursements to states in the first half of 2019 were N1.335 trillion, compared to N1.375 trillion and N923 billion in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
This, it explained, indicated that disbursement to states in the first half of 2019 was 2.9 per cent lower than the first half of 2018 but 44.7 per cent higher than the first half of 2017.
“For the first six months of 2019, disbursements to states were N223.67 billion in January, N230.66 billion in February, N220.87 billion in March, N218.08 billion in April, N214.41 billion in May, N228.04 billion in June.
“Thus, disbursements increased by 3.1 per cent between January and February. But disbursements fell by 4.2 per cent between February and March, by 1.3 per cent between March and April, and by 1.7 per cent between April and May. Finally, disbursements increased by 6.4 per cent between May and June.
“A comparison of the 2019 figures with the 2018 figures shows an aggregate decrease in 2019,” it stated.
On the federal government’s share of the revenue, the report said it increased from N270.17 billion in January to N275.33 billion in February, and then fell to N257.68 billion in March but increased slightly to N257.76 billion in April, and fell again to N253.92 billion in May, before increasing to N284.16 billion in June.
