FAAC released N4.55trn to FG, others in 9 months-NEITI

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed a total of N4.545 trillion to the federal, states and local governments as allocations between January and September 2017.

Out of this amount, N1.757trn was shared in the third quarter of 2017 as against the N1.377trn and N1.411trn disbursed in the second and first quarters of the year, a Quarterly Review of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has shown.

The review also shows that between January and September 2017, the federal government received the highest allocation of N1.85trn, the states got N1.509trn while the 774 local governments got N913.8 billion. The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigeria Customs Services (NCS) and the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) got N271.78bn as cost of revenue collections.

The revenues shared to the federating units were higher in the third quarter of 2017 which has been the pattern for some years now. In the third quarter, the federal government got N752.79bn, an increase of 37 per cent from the N549.41bn in the second quarter of 2017.

The trend was the same for the states and local governments which received N586.58billion and N363.98 billion in the third quarter as against N467.13 and 280.42 billion in the second quarter respectively.

The percentage increases between the two quarters for the two tiers of government are 25.5 per cent and 29.8 per cent respectively, it said.

The Review attributed the reason for the increases in FAAC disbursements to the three tiers of governments in the third quarter to what it called “Positive developments in the oil sector.”

The NEITI Quarterly Review based its analysis on data obtained from FAAC, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Federal Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office of the Federation, a statement from its spokesman, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji said.

Meanwhile Nigeria’s revenues in the first half of 2017 were about 49 per cent lower than budgeted figures.

While government projected N5.368trn revenue flows in its 2017 Fiscal framework for the first six months of the year, actual inflows were N2.712trn, the review noted.

Government’s half year projections were 2.667trn for oil and 2.701trn for non-oil revenue. However, actual oil revenue was N1.587trn representing a N1.079trn shortfall, implying a 40.4 per cent underperformance.

Non-oil revenue fared slightly worse, as only 41.6 per cent of the projected revenue was realized. Actual non-oil revenue totalled N1.125trn, indicating a N1.575trn shortfall, NEITI said in its report.