Ike Amos
26 September 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja — Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Monday, disclosed that the 10 oil-producing states in the country received a total of N556.58 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, in the first half of 2018.
NEITI, in its Quarterly Review tagged ‘Highlights of Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, disbursement in the second quarter and half year 2018’, stated that the amount received the oil-producing states accounted for 14.1 percent of the total disbursements of N3.946 trillion recorded in the first six-months of the year.
According to the report, Delta State received the highest allocation of N101.19 billion in the six-month period, followed by Akwa Ibom with N100.2 billion; Rivers State with N85.01 billion, and Bayelsa N77.14 billion.
Others are Edo N32.88 billion, Ondo N30.96 billion, Abia N26.46 billion, Imo N25.38 billion, Cross River N17.13 billion and Lagos N59.52 billion.
The report further stated that there was a wide disparity in total net disbursements to states in the first half of 2018, explaining that disbursements to states ranged between N10.24 billion and N101.19 billion.
It said, “The highest receiving state over this period was Delta State with N101.19 billion, while the lowest receiving state was Osun State with N10.24 billion. This implies that Delta State received 988 percent more than Osun State received.
“Five states received between N10 billion and N19 billion: Osun, Cross River, Ekiti, Zamfara, and Ogun. Majority of the states, 21 specifically, received between N20 billion and N29 billion: Plateau, Gombe, Kwara, Ebonyi, Taraba, Nassarawa, Adamawa, Enugu, Kogi, Yobe, Sokoto, Imo, Bauchi, Kebbi, Benue, Anambra, Abia, Niger, Oyo, Katsina, and Jigawa.
“Five states received amounts between N30 billion and N40 billion: Borno, Ondo, Kaduna, Edo, and Kano. The five highest receiving states got between N41 billion and N101.19 billion. These were Delta, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa, and Lagos.”
The report further stated that total FAAC disbursements in the first half of 2018 stood at N3.946 trillion, rising by 41.4 percent compared to N2.788 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2017 and 95.4 percent higher than the N2.019 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2016.
It said, “Thus, the disbursements in the first half of 2018 were almost double the disbursements in the first half of 2016. The breakdown of the data reveals that in the first half of 2018, FG received N1.652 trillion, which made up 41.8 percent of the total amount disbursed; the states got N1.375 trillion, representing 34.8 percent of the total; while N795 billion was disbursed to the LGAs, representing 20.1 percent of the total.
“In the first quarter of 2013, total disbursements were N2.607 trillion. This figure for the first quarter of 2013 was the highest over this period while the N886.4 billion disbursed in the second quarter 2016 was the lowest.
“This indicates a difference of N1.721 trillion between disbursements in the highest and lowest months. This figure is very large and further highlights the volatility in revenue for the Federation, arising from the dependence on oil.”
It added that “This shows a generally declining pattern in disbursements from first quarter 2013 until a trough was reached in second quarter 2016. Thereafter, an upward pattern is observed, and this increase continued until the second quarter of 2018.
“The N2.008 trillion disbursed in the second quarter 2018 was the highest since the third quarter of 2014. In fact, the second quarter of 2018 was the first time an amount in excess of N2 trillion was disbursed since third quarter 2014. This is a run of 14 consecutive quarters of disbursements below N2 trillion.
“Considering that all disbursements from first quarter 2013 to second quarter 2014 were in excess of N2 trillion, this figure clearly shows the contraction in revenue for all tiers of government, a pointer to why they have struggled to meet their obligations.”