Pascal Arogorn Ibe
The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee shared N 3. 879trn to the Federal Government , states , local governments , and other statutory recipients in the first half of this year , the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has said .
A breakdown of the disbursements showed that N 1. 53tn went to the Federal Government , while the states got N 1. 29tn and the 774 local government areas received N 771. 34bn.
This is contained in the latest edition of the quarterly review of NEITI in Abuja on Tuesday.
The review stated that the N 1. 53tn received by the Federal Government in the first six months of 2020 was 4. 28 per cent lower than the N 1. 599tn it got in the first half of 2019, and 7. 36 per cent lower than the N 1. 652tn it received in the first half of 2018.
The story was the same for the states and Local Government areas.
“ For states , a total of N 1. 298tn was disbursed in the first half of 2020. This was 2. 8 per cent lower than the N 1. 35tn disbursed in the first half of 2019, and 5. 6 per cent lower than the N 1. 375tn disbursed in the first half of 2020, ” the report stated
For local government areas , the 2020 first half disbursements were 2. 64 per cent and 3. 04 per cent lower than the corresponding disbursements for 2019 and 2018 respectively .
The report , however , noted that disbursements in Q 2 2020 were 1. 09 per cent higher than total disbursements in Q 2 2019 and 3. 66 per cent lower than the one for Q 2 2018.
FAAC disbursements in the second quarter of 2020 stood at N 1. 934tn .
This was made up of N 739. 2bn to the Federal Government , N 629. 3bn to state governments , and N 375. 4bn to the 774 Local Government areas.
The report pointed out that the total FAAC disbursements in the second quarter of 2020 was slightly lower than the N 1. 945tn disbursed in the first quarter of 2020.
“ This aligned with the projections made in the previous issue of the NEITI Quarterly Review which projected lower FAAC disbursement in the second quarter, ” the report stated .
It attributed the 0. 55 per cent decrease in Q 2 2020 to a couple of factors such as the rebound in oil prices in the second quarter as a result of ease of lockdowns by countries across the world .
Others include the adjustment of the official exchange rate by the Central Bank of Nigeria from N 307 per dollar to N 360 per dollar in March resulting in higher naira disbursements .
NEITI also disclosed that from January to May 2020, actual government revenue was N 1. 62tn , representing 62 per cent of the expected pro- rata revenue of N 2. 62tn from the revised budget .
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