FG, states, councils get N3.95tr in six months

The federal, state and local governments shared N3.95 trillion from the Federation Account in the first half of 2018.The disbursements by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) represent an increase of 41 per cent compared with the N2.79 trillion released in the corresponding period of last year and a 95 per cent leap over the N2 trillion figure of 2016.

The FAAC releases for the first and second quarters of this year and their highlights were contained in the Quarterly Review of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) yesterday.

A breakdown shows that the Federal Government received N1.65 trillion, states got N1.38 trillion while the local councils shared N795 billion. The disparity in revenues was based on the sharing formula prescribed in the constitution, the report noted.

The document revealed that the lowest monthly figure of N635.6 billion disbursed in the first half of 2018 was N121.4 billion above the highest monthly figure of N514.2 billion posted for same period of 2017 and N218 billion better than that the monthly peak of N417 billion statistics for 2016.

The report stated: “These figures clearly indicate that revenues accruing to the federation in the first half of 2018 completely outstripped those of the previous two years.”It further disclosed that the total FAAC disbursements in the second quarter of this year were 46 per cent higher than the tally for the same period of last year and 127 per cent superior to 2016 data.

The report noted that while N2 trillion was shared in the second quarter of this year, N1.38 trillion was disbursed the corresponding period of 2017 and only N886.38 billion was shared in 2016.“Q2 2018 was the first time an amount in excess of N2 trillion was disbursed since Q3 2014. This is a run of 14 consecutive quarters of disbursements below N2 trillion,” the document clarified.

The phenomenal increases in the second quarter of this year, the report observed, were the highest since the third quarter of 2014. It attributed the positive development to the rise in crude oil prices and the corresponding boost in oil production.

The NEITI document added: “Average oil price in 2016 was $43.5 per barrel, while in 2017 oil price averaged $54.2 per barrel. However, in the first six months of 2018, average oil price was $70.6 per barrel. Thus, on the average, oil price increased by 62.2 per cent between 2016 and the first half of 2018.

“Total oil production in 2016 was 661.1 million barrels while the figure was 690 million barrels in 2017. In 2016, average monthly oil production was 55.1 million barrels while it was 57.5 million barrels in 2017. For the first two months of 2018 for which data are available, average production was 59 million barrels.”