Nigeria’s Revenue in February Drops -MoF

Revenues generated by the Federal Government for the month of February dropped to 345.095 billion naira from 370.388 billion naira it recorded the previous month, January, due to fall in global prices of crude oil.

A statement released on Tuesday by the Federal Ministry of Finance (MoF), “There was revenue loss of $45.9 million as a result of a drop in average prices of crude oil from $39.04 in December 2015 to $29.02 in January 2016.”, it read.

“Also a substantial drop in income was recorded from oil and gas royalty, company income tax and import duties,” it added.

The MoF statement further read that the revenues which also included: VAT, refunds from NNPC and exchange gains would be distributed among the three tiers of government – the federal, state and local government authorities.

President Mohammed Buhari had expressed his determination to seek end to the nation’s absolute dependence on sales and export of crude oil and explore new frontiers such as the agricultural sector, solid minerals mining etc.

Nigeria had been in a state of flux since the global crude prices started its steep descend June 2014 and this had put most of the state governments into an had corners, most of whom were still owing the civil servants salary arrears and have had to suspend several projects embarked upon.