Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account Down To $2.45 Billion

Nigeria's Excess Crude Account, the equivalent of the
Sovereign Wealth Fund, has plunged to $2.45 billion
as oil prices continue to fall.
The balance in the dollar component of the excess
crude oil revenue account depleted to about $2.45
billion in December 2014.
The account, which stood at about $4.11billion in
October, dropped to about $3.11billion in November
2014.
Though there was a controversy of a missing $1billion
from the account during the month, the Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the money was
used for the payment of part of the outstanding debt
to petroleum products marketers.
The Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda, at
the end of the Federation Accounts Allocation
Committee, FAAC, meeting in Abuja on Friday, said
the balance in the account for December 2014 stood
at about $2.45 billion.
Details of the balance of the account released at the
end of the FAAC meeting showed that the transfer to
the account as a result of foreign exchange gain
dropped from N1.767 billion to about N665 million.
The Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Jonah
Otunla, said in a statement at the end of the meeting
that the balance in the account dropped from about
$3.11 billion to $2.45 billion in December.
The new balance in the account followed the
withdrawal of the equivalent of N15.631 billion to
augment the shortfall in allocation available for
distribution to the three tiers of government for the
month.
The expected revenue proposed in the 2014 approved
budget for December was N688.938 billion.
But following the continued decline in global oil
prices at the international market since the beginning
of the year, there was a decline in oil revenue in the
Federation Account and a shortfall in the monthly
allocation available for distribution.
In December, about N381.58billion realized as oil
revenue for the month was lower by N36.032 billion
from the expected revenue of N417.612 billion
proposed in the 2014 budget.
Similarly, non-oil revenue, which stood at about
N107.796 billion was lower by N57.927 billion from
about N185.323 billion proposed in the budget.
The minister said the withdrawal of N15.631 billion
from the ECA was to augment the difference of N92.9
billion between total allocation realized for the month
(N490.031billion) and about N582.935 billion proposed
in the budget.
Courtesy: nairaland news
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