FG, others shared N2.28tr in 3rd quarter of 2018 – NEITI
Revenue disbursements by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the three tiers of government have witnessed a steady increase in three consecutive quarters of this year with N2.28 trillion shared in the third quarter of 2018, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said its Quarterly Review.
A breakdown of the figure shows that the federal government received the highest sum of N904.8 billion, followed by states, which received N718.5 billion and Local governments (LGCs) received the lowest disbursements of N432.1 billion.
This information is contained in the latest edition of the NEITI Quarterly Review just published.
According to the review, Total FAAC disbursements in Q3 of 2018 amounted to N2.28 trillion representing a 17.6 per cent increase over the N1.938 trillion disbursed in the first quarter of 2018 and 13.5 per cent higher than the N2.008 trillion disbursed in the second quarter.
The NEITI report noted that with the exception of July, the lowest amount disbursed so far in 2018 is higher than disbursements in all other months in 2016 and 2017.
A breakdown of the disbursed sums for 2016, 2017 and 2018 showed that the disbursements in the third quarter of 2018 (N2.28 trillion) were 31 per cent and 18 per cent higher than disbursements in the third quarters of the last two years.
NEITI also reported that the last time total disbursements exceeded the N2.5trillion mark was in the second quarter of 2014 (N2.510 trillion).
Further analysis of the increases as reported by the NEITI Quarterly Review showed that the Federal Government’s receipt of N904.8 billion in Q3 of 2018, was 11.3 per cent and 7.8 per cent higher than the amounts received in the first (N812.8 billion) and second (N839.5 billion) quarters of 2018 respectively. in
“The amount disbursed to states represented an increase of 5.1% over the N683.5 billion disbursed in the first quarter, and an increase of 3.8% over the N692.1 billion disbursed in the second quarter. For LGCs, the amount received was 9.8% and 7.5% higher than the respective amounts of N393.4 billion and N402.1 billion received in the first and second quarters,” the report said.
On a year-by-year analysis, NEITI said that the increase to third quarter disbursements to states in 2018 were the highest when compared to 2016 and 2017 figures disbursed to other federating units.
A comparison of the state-by-state net disbursement shows a stark disparity in the amounts received. For instance, the net disbursement received by Delta State in January alone sums up to the total net disbursements to Osun State from January to September 2018. This clearly indicates that disbursements to Delta State were higher than the one to Osun by over 800%.
As observed in previous reviews, states that received the highest allocations of N100 billion and above are all in the Niger Delta region and this is on account of the 13% derivation.
Furthermore, a comparison of stateby-state debt deductions in the first nine months of 2018 revealed that Lagos State had the highest deduction of N26.84 billion while Yobe State had the lowest deduction of N1.12 billion (a percentage difference of 2,300%).
The state with the lowest ratio of deductions to net disbursements was Anambra with 2.85%, while Osun had the highest deduction to net disbursements ratio of 132.85%, signalling that deductions exceeded disbursements to Osun State.
The review however explained that the wide disparities in disbursements to states were as a result of differences in disbursements arising from the revenue sharing formula, deductions from states due to external debts, contractual obligations, among others.