Akwa Ibom Got Highest, Gombe Lowest As Nigeria Shared N2.8trn In Six Months (See Details)

The Federal Government, 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have so far shared the sum of 2.788
trillion between January and June this year, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (NEITI) has revealed.

According to the Quarterly Review of the NEITI, which focused on disbursements from the Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee (FAAC), the N2.8tn was shared among the three tiers of government by FAAC in 2017, representing a 38 per cent increase over the N2.019tn shared in the first half of 2016.

In the statement issued on Sunday by Ogbonnaya Orji, director, communications and advocacy, NEITI, it is understood that apart from the federal government that got N1.09 trillion, Akwa Ibom has the highest allocation among the states as it received N92.72 billion within the period under review.

The statement said out of $2.788tn disbursed in the first half of 2017, the Federal Government received N1.09tn; 36 state governments received N923bn; while N549.8bn went to the 774 local governments in Nigeria.

A further breakdown shows that total releases to the three tiers of government amounted to N430.16bn in January, N514bn in February, N496.4bn  in March, N418.82bn in April, N418.82bn in May and N462.36bn  in  June.

Aside Akwa Ibom, nine other states who received the largest allocations are Lagos with N91.45 billion, Rivers comes third with N81.41 billion. The fourth position was Delta with N71.98 billion, while Kano State got the fifth place with N62.90 billion, throwing a derivation state of Bayelsa to the sixth position with N61.45 billion.

Others among the first ten are Katsina State in the seventh position garnering N44.80 billion, Oyo hits number eight with N43.78 billion, Kaduna manages with number nine position with N42.60 billion and the tenth place surprisingly goes to Borno State, with N39.63billion despite the calamities that have befallen the North-eastern state.

The Economic Confidential search (above) further reveals that the states with the lowest allocation from the Federation Account within the period under review are Gombe on the 36th position with N24.87 billion, followed by Ebonyi State with N24.91 billion in the 35th position, Nasarawa State in the 34th position with N25.41 billion.

While Ekiti and Kwara states took the 33rd and 32nd positions respectively with N25.57 billion and N26.48 billion.

NEITI expressed concern that the nation’s debt in relation to revenues may be reaching a critical level.

“However, despite the 38% increase in disbursements in the first half of 2017 when compared with 2016, all the three tiers of government suffered significant revenue decline in terms of projected FAAC disbursement, the statement read.
“Coupled with the low price of oil is the country’s difficulty in meeting the targeted/budgeted production rate of 2.2 million barrels per day.Production has consistently fallen below two million barrels per day since March 2016.
“Thus the double “whammy” of low oil prices and lower production that hit the country since 2014 has remained.”