…As FAAC shares N2.8tr in one year
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
13 June 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – After a long streak of depreciation, Nigeria’s external reserves last week increased slightly with the 30-day moving average rising to $26.4 billion as at Wednesday, June 8, 2016, according to latest data provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In spite of the recent uptick in global oil prices, the increase of the reserves was lower than expected due to violence in the Niger Delta region, which has reduced the country’s oil output which dropped to its lowest levels since April 2015, according to data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
With crude oil selling at above $51 per barrel at the international market, Nigeria’s output stood at 57.43 million barrels for March, or just over 1.8 million barrels a day, a decline of more than 3 percent from the over 2 million barrels a day recorded in the previous month.
Angola has now overtaken Nigeria as the continent’s largest crude exporter.
The external reserves had consistently been depleted in the past months, shedding a total of $2.67 billion or 9.18 percent since the beginning of the year. As at January 4, 2016, the reserves was $28.957 billion but had consistently trended downwards to $26.372 billion as at June 2, 2016, before rising to $26.4 billion.
Reports note that the Debt Management Office (DMO) will this week raise N105 billion from the debt market through re-openings of federal government bonds.
The debt office said that it will raise N15 billion through the 15.54 per cent FGN FEB 2020, N40 billion through the 12.50 per cent FGN JAN 2026 and N50 billion through the 12.40 per cent FGN MAR 2036.
Meanwhile, the 36 states and the 774 local governments in the country have so far shared a total sum of N2.8 trillion from the federation account in the one year of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
According to a report by the Economic Confidential magazine, the amount was the payment made to the two tiers of government between June 2015 and May 2016 at the monthly meeting of the Federation Ac¬count Allocation Committee (FAAC).
In the report, Lagos State is ranked the highest recipient with N178 billion in the twelve months. It is followed by Akwa Ibom State, N173 billion; Delta State, N144 billion and Kano State N117 billion. The five states got a quarter (25 percent) of the total allocation for the states and local governments within the period.
Also, Bayelsa State got N95 billion; followed by Katsina State, N88 billion; Oyo State, N84 billion; Kaduna State, N83 billion and Borno State, N78 billion.
The lowest recipients are Gombe and Ebonyi states that got N49 billion each, followed by Ekiti and Nassarawa states, N50billion each and Kwara, N52 billion.
The report further disclosed that Edo and Ondo states which are oil-producing states got N66 billion and N71 billion respectively, while another state in the South-South, Cross River State, received N59 billion.
The report noted that factors that influence the allocation include population, derivation, land mass, terrain, revenue effort, school enrollments, health facilities, water supply and equality of the beneficiaries.