The Federal Government spent N1.094 trillion on debt servicing between January and September last year, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said.

She gave the statistics in Abuja while presenting the draft 2016 budget implementation and performance monitoring report for the third quarter of last year at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.

The figures showed that N1.044 trillion was devoted for local debt servicing, while N50.22 billion went into external debt servicing.

External debt stock stood at $11.583 billion, representing an increase of $320.70 billion (or 2.85per cent) from external debt stock in the second quarter of last year, and an increase of $965.24 billion (or 9.09 per cent) over the $10,618 billion documented in the third quarter of 2015.

Mrs Ahmed said: “The increase in the external debt stock in the third quarter of 2016 was due largely to the rise in Non-Paris Club Bilateral Debts drawdown.”

She also said government’s revenue dropped by over 60 per cent due to uncertainties in global oil prices, which was worsened by crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and militancy in the Niger Delta region.

She said non oil revenue improved by 9.47 per cent to N777.37 billion in the third quarter of 2016 from N709.96 billion same quarter in the previous year, adding that government largely borrowed from domestic sources to fund capital projects last year, which it must ensure does not continue.

She said N987.17 billion was available for distribution between the three-tiers of government in the third quarter, with a 30 .96 per cent shortfall of N442.73 billion.

Mrs. Ahmed said there were no transfers made to the Excess Crude Account (ECA) in the first two quarters of the year following the fall in global oil price and supply constraints, stating that N145.48 billion was transferred to the account in the third quarter due to price recovery.

She said N85. 17 billion was withdrawn from the ECA for distribution among the three tiers of government within the quarter, leaving a balance of $2.89 billion balance as at September 20, pointing out that government spent N586.24 billion on its non debt recurrent expenditure in the third quarter, with a decrease of N75.36 billion below its third quarter estimate of N661.60 billion.