The widening gap between expenditure and revenue may have reached a crisis level in the past few months, leaving the Federal Government
• Three top spending items overrun estimates, receive N140.6b in six months • 51% of N19.4b H1 budgetary allocations held back • Agricultural research, foreign missions get zero funding • Stakeholders fear regulatory crisis in oil sector, disregard for PIA • Concerns over idle oil blocks, fate of NNPCL • Nigeria loses $7.2 billion to…• 51% of N19.4b H1 budgetary allocations held back• Stakeholders fear regulatory crisis in oil sector, disregard for PIA• Nigeria loses $7.
The Government Integrated Financial Management Information System , a platform that collates and harmonises all government expenditures, puts the prorated H1 MDA funding at N19.42 trillion. But only 49 per cent or N9.53 trillion was released to establishments for utilisation at the close of the period.
The Bureau of Public Sector Reforms also received zero funding, implying that the agency may have been left to the mercy of grants and donors’ funds to survive. Almost all Nigeria’s foreign missions have not been funded since the beginning of the year, according to the document. Altogether, the National Assembly, presidential air fleet and State House Headquarters received N140.56 billion, which was above the prorated funding estimates, in H1 when most MDAs wallowed in what appears like austerity.
These come on the backdrop of a directive by President Bola Tinubu to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to sell in naira 450,000 barrels per day of crude to Dangote Petroleum Refinery and other domestic refiners. The joint ventures account for about 70 per cent of the country’s production, where NNPC owes about 60 per cent share and the deep water 30 per cent.
Stakeholders in the oil sector have expressed fear over the political influence in the oil and gas sector. They insisted that it is contradictory to the Petroleum Industry Act to make regulatory and commercial decisions on political considerations. With Afreximbank not trading locally in naira, the source said the deal is complicated and could increase the joint venture issues between NNPC and the oil companies that are already owed cash call areas.
He said the move would save Nigeria foreign exchange hitherto expended on the importation of refined products, noting that the policy stance can improve the foreign exchange reserves, stabilising the foreign exchange market and providing the users of foreign exchange more access to the scarce commodity for more critical purposes.
He said NNPC must hand over the assets to the private investors who borrowed money to buy 45 per cent of some of these assets, especially OML 42. He insisted that if Tinubu fails to reorganise NNPC, Nigeria will import crude oil and gas to sustain the economy.Before flagging, please keep in mind that Disqus does not moderate communities. Your username will be shown to the moderator, so you should only flag this comment for one of the reasons listed above.
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