Nigeria’s August revenues at N745.5bn fell 32.7% below budget

The Federal Government of Nigeria earned N745.52 billion, as its gross federally collected revenue (gross) in August, 2018.

This figure fell below both the 2018 monthly budget estimate of N1,107.12 billion and the receipt in the preceding month of N947.62 billion by 32.7 and 21.3 percent respectively.

According to the August economic report published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the decline in revenue in relation to the monthly budget estimate is due to a shortfall in both oil and non-oil revenue.

Of the earned revenue, the federal government retained N344.33 billion, while total provisional expenditure was N309.12 billion, resulting in an estimated surplus of N35.21 billion.

A breakdown of the earnings showed oil receipts for the review month came in at N403.59 billion or 54.1 percent of total revenue, also 37 percent below the monthly budget estimate of N640.21 billion as well as below the preceding month’s receipt of N513.54 billion by 21.4 percent.

The fall in oil revenue relative to the monthly budget estimate was attributed to the drop in crude oil production arising from repairs and maintenance of oil facilities at various NNPC terminals.

At N341.93 billion or 45.9 percent of total revenue, non-oil revenue was below both the 2018 monthly budget estimate of N466.91 billion and the N434.08 billion received in July 2018 by 26.8 and 21.2 percent, respectively.

The lower revenue relative to the monthly budget estimate was due to shortfalls recorded in most of the components of the total federally-collected revenue (net), N557.16 billion was retained in the federation account, while N76.61 billion, N26.86 billion and N13.43 billion were transferred to the VAT Pool Account, the Federal Government Independent revenue and “Others”, respectively.

Of the N557.16 billion transferred to the federation account for distribution, the Federal Government received N269.82 billion, while the state and local governments got N136.86 billion and N105.51 billion, respectively.

The balance of N44.96 billion was shared among the oil producing states as 13 percent derivation fund.

Similarly, from the N76.61 billion transferred to the VAT Pool Account, the Federal Government received N11.49 billion, while the state and local governments received N38.31 billion and N26.82 billion, respectively.

In addition, the sum of N66.88 billion was distributed in the month as “Exchange Gain”.

Of this amount, the federal, state and local governments received N30.65 billion, N15.55 billion and N11.99 billion, respectively, while the 13 percent derivation fund received N8.69 billion.

Furthermore, there was NNPC additional revenue of N12 billion shared as follows: The federal government, N5.50 billion, the state governments, local governments and the 13 percent derivation fund N2.79 billion, N2.15 billion and N1.56 billion, respectively.

Overall, total allocation to the three tiers of government in August, 2018 amounted to N712.65 billion. This was below the 2018 monthly budget estimate of N967.43 billion by 26.3 percent. It, however, exceeded the N657.57 billion allocated in the preceding month by 8.4 percent.