The federal government has declared economy of Nigeria was facing a perilous time, urging States to improve in generating revenues.
This was disclosed in an interview, on National Television, by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Ahmed Zainab, saying the money shared at the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting (FAAC) was short of ₦50billion.
The Minister was speaking with regards to the claims by the Edo State governor Godwin Obaseki, that the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) printed ₦60 billion, shared in March for FAAC.
This claims was dismissed as false by the Central Bank governor, and the Minister of Finance.
The Minister said the country’s economy was stabilizing from the recession, which the country exited few months ago.
She said, “These are very difficult times, because revenues are low and the demand for expenditures are very high; understandably, because we have to keep intervening to make sure pandemic is contained as well the economic impact it caused.
“It is a very difficult time. I can explain to you how difficult it is, not just for the federal government, but also for the States. We see increasing reductions in our FAAC revenues – FAAC revenues are revenues that we put every month that are collected from both oil and non-oil sectors from the collection of National Nigeria Petroleum Corporations (NNPC), the Firs (Federal Inland Revenue Services) and all other revenues collection agencies.
“So FAAC reduces; and whenever FAAC reduces, it is a very difficult situation. In the past one year, we have tried to fall back on some specific account that are meant to be saved; savings that when you have such a situation, you fall back on the resources and augment.
“So we take funds based on Mr President’s approval either from excess crude or stabilization account, or in some cases, President approved for us to take funds from LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) dividends. In the month of March, we had a short fall of FAAC that was about ₦50 billion. We didn’t have enough accured in any other accounts, other than some ₦8.5 billion that we took from exchange rate differential account so we added up and ended up with FAAC of ₦605 billion.
Ijeoma Njoku reporting, Obinwannem News
