Election spending: Nigeria govt further depletes excess crude account to $249m
Nse Anthony-Uko is Abuja editorial lead at business a.m. covering finance, business, economy, federal government economic MDAs and FCT
The Nigerian government has further depleted the balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to $249 million between January and February this year in an apparent last minute scamper for funds to fund its election activities.
The balance in the ECA dropped significantly from $2.45 billion at the end of November 2018 to just $631 million at the end of December, a period of one month.
A communiqué issued at the end of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting for February indicated that the new balance in the ECA is $249m, signaling further depletion.
Ahmed Idris, Accountant General of the Federation, who represented the Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance at the meeting however did not explain for what purpose the withdrawal was made.
Meanwhile, FAAC disbursed to the three tiers of government a total of N610.368 billion federal revenue generated in the month of January 2019, but shared in February 2019.
Ahmed said approval is being awaited from the minister of finance for additional N50 billion from the Foreign Exchange Equalization Account, which will be distributed accordingly.