By Adedapo Adesanya
At the height of the pandemic lockdown in Nigeria in April, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursement to the three tiers of government rose 34 percent, latest figures show.
April was a month that was marred by slump in global oil prices and halt in trades caused largely by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was worsened when governments placed restrictions on movement to curb the spread, stifling economic activities globally.
However, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in April 2020, FAAC disbursed the sum of N780.9 billion to the federal, states, and local governments, higher than N581.6 billion distributed in the preceding month of March.
A breakdown of the report showed that the federal government received a total of N264.3 billion, the 36 states received a total allocation of N181.5 billion, while the amount received by all the 774 Local Governments Areas totalled N135.9 billion.
The nine oil-producing states of Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Ondo, Imo, Abia and Lagos got the sum of N54.3 billion as the mandatory 13 percent oil derivatives.
Revenue generating agencies such as the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) received N6.1 billion, N10.2 billion, and N5.74 billion respectively as cost of revenue collections.
The amount disbursed during the month comprised N478.2 billion from the Statutory Account, N119.5 billion from excess oil revenue, N120.3 billion from valued added tax (VAT), and N62.9 billion from exchange gain differences.
In a breakdown by states collection, Delta continued its dominance as the state with the highest allocation, receiving a sum of N21.5 billion, accounting for 9.1 percent of states total gross allocation. Akwa Ibom followed closely, having received N17.2 billion equivalent to 7.3 percent, while Lagos State came third with N15.3 billion allocation.
Rivers State in fourth received – N14.9 billion; Bayelsa in fifth collected N14.3 billion; while Kano received N7.1 billion in sixth while Imo state in seventh collected a total of N5.9 billion
Kwara and Ekiti were the lowest receiving state collecting N4.04 billion each. Others include Nassarawa – N4.11 billion, Ebonyi – N4.14 billion and Gombe State – N4.19 billion.
During the period, a total sum of N36.38 billion was deducted from the states’ allocation for external debt deduction, which amounted to N4.6 billion, while contractual Obligation (ISPO) was estimated at N6.4 billion.
Other deductions represented the highest deduction as it amounted to the sum of N25.3 billion. These deductions covered National Water Rehabilitation Projects, National Agricultural Technology Support Programme, Salary Bailout, Payment for Fertilizer, State water supply project, state Agricultural project, and National Fadama Project.
Dipo Olowookere