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….As govt revenue drops by over 60 percent in third quarter of 2016
Nigeria, currently battling economic recession spent N1.1 trillion to service its debts from January to September of 2016.
Government figures seen on Tuesday, show that N1.04 trillion was used for local debt servicing, as against the N980.55billion budgeted in the 2016 spending plan, representing a N63.45 billion increase. Also, N50.22billion was spent for external debt servicing, indicating some N9.36 billion increase from the N40.86 billion budgeted.
Last year, the DMO said government planned to spend 35 percent of its N3.86trillion forecast revenues on debt servicing, up from 26 percent in 2015.
The government had also planned to borrow as much as $5 billion to finance a record budget deficit of N3 trillion.
The Federal Government domestic debt stock, as at September 30, 2016, reached N10.8 trillion, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO). External debt stock, which the DMO said were mostly low interest funds from multi-lateral financial institutions stood at $11.58billion, representing an increase of $320.70 million (or 2.85%) from external debt stock in the second quarter of 2016 and an increase
of $965.24 million (or 9.09%) over the $10,618billion documented in the third quarter of 2015.
“The increase in the external debt stock in the third quarter of 2016 was due largely to the rise in Non-Paris Club Bilateral Debts drawdown”, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said, quoting DMO data.
This is as government revenues show an over 60 percent drop, on account of uncertainties in global oil prices, worsened by crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
Presenting the Draft 2016 Budget Implementation and Performance Monitoring Report for the third quarter, Ahmed said net oil receipt dropped by 66.6 percent to N201 billion in the third quarter of 2016 as against N603.53billon in same quarter last year.
However, non-oil revenue improved by 9.47 percent, to N777.37billion from N709.96billion same quarter last year.
The minister said in 2016 government largely borrowed from domestic sources to fund capital projects and must ensure it does not continue that way.
Giving a further breakdown on the implementation and performance of the 2016 budget in the third quarter, the minister said a net sum of N987.17 billion was available for distribution between the three tiers of government in the third quarter, with a 30 .96 percent shortfall of N442.73billion.
No transfers were made to the Excess Crude Account (ECA) in the first two quarters of the year, following a fall in global oil price and supply constraints, however N145.48billion was transferred to the account in the third quarter, due to price recovery.
