FAAC Stakeholders Share N545. 88b
…As Yuguda Insists Nigeria Not Broke
… Excess Crude Account Thins To $2.60b
By Moshood Isah and By Yusuf An-Nuphawi
Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Bashir Yuguda has disclosed that domestic excess crude balance in the federation account stands at N19 billion while the excess crude account (ECA) remained $2.60 billion as at the end of January, 2015
While fielding questions from reporters shortly after February 2015 Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting in Abuja on Tuesday The Federal Government has insisted that the country was not broke despite the headwinds militating economic growth in recent times.
To him, insinuation that the country is broke is a political point made out of nothing.
Yuguda said in as much as the country was meeting its financial obligations as at when due, it would be wrong to continue to make such unfounded insinuations.
“I don’t know the issue of the country being broke, people should come up with facts and figures of what it means for a country to be broke’’, Yuguda challenged.
He lamented however, that recent measures put in place to boost revenue from non-oil sources are yet to yield desired results mainly because the non-oil sector are still linked to oil and gas which has been facing uncertainties.
Meanwhile, state governments have expressed their doubts about the capability of electricity distribution companies (EDCs) to give Nigerians uninterrupted electricity supply within the foreseeable future.
Chairman, Forum of Commissioners of Finance of Nigeria (FCFN) and Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Ebonyi State, Barrister Timothy Odaah said at the occasion that in view of the urgent need to energize the economy through regular power supply, it has become necessary to call on President Goodluck Jonathan to direct the EDCs to do more as effect of privatization is not felt yet by Nigerians.
‘’We took decision to let the Minister confirm to Mr. President that performance of EDCs in their respective states are nothing to write home about.
‘’Mr. President’s attention has to be called to direct these people to do more’’, he stated.
Meanwhile, exclusive documents available to Economic Confidential reveals it’s not the best of times for federation account stakeholders as substantial reduction in global prices of crude continued to negatively affect amounts available for disbursement.
Compared to over N741 Billion shared for December 2014, a total of N545, 887,841,574 was distributed among the federal, state and local government councils for January 2015 at the FAAC meeting held on February 24, 2015.
Altogether, the Federal Government received a total of N195,293,356,017.70 which is about N27billion less than it got last month.
The reduction as expected also affected the state and local governments as all the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory collected a little over N152billion. This is many miles less than the N190, 529, 444,336 which the governors spent in December.
In a similar vein, all the 774 local government councils shared N97,024,956,334 compared to N116, 610, 916,264.26 they collected the previous month.
Lagos displaced Rivers State in the distribution pecking order as Akwa Ibom maintains the status quo with the highest allocation. A total of N17,757,195,970.54 was shared to Akwa Ibom Government alongside its 31 Local government councils. Next on the table of distribution is Delta State with cumulative N14,705,272,471.96 to share with its 25 Local Government councils.
Lagos State leapfrogged River state, as Governor Raji Fashola received N13,112,515,739.61, while his Rivers State counterpart got a total of N12,865,437,989.94. Kano and Bayelsa maintained their position on the FAAC distribution log with Kano getting N10,626,232,401 and Bayelsa following closely with N10,180,145,415.34.
Gombe state allocation remained very low despite being affected by insurgency with N3, 803, 903, 193.84, only above Ebonyi State who is rooted to the bottom of the distribution table with N3,682,642,714.68. Fayose’s Ekiti State tops the bottom three after receiving N4,013, 496,758.78. Nasarawa State got N4.439, 322,650.23, Kwara state received N4.687, 062,067.84 while Zamfara collected N4.927, 533,759.65 to complete the low earners list.
Agencies like Nigerian Custom Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) continued to receive allocations directly from the Federation Account. NCS received N3,095,655,818.97 and FIRS was given N2,690,040,878.17. In a similar vein, DPR collected N1,936,928,214.59 while Federal Capital Territory got N4,281,005, 669.28.
