Buhari spends 91 percent of revenue generated on debt servicing

The federal government spent took in N2.23 trillion for the first half 2021, and spent N2.02 trillion on servicing the multi-trillion naira debt Nigeria owes.

This figure represents 90.5 per cent of the total revenue the country generated in the first six months, and 35 percent of all the federal government spent-N5.81 trillion— in that period.

Technical Adviser to the Director General of the Budget Office, Alfred Okon made this clear while presenting the “Overview of FGN 2022 Budget Call Circular” report.

Okon made the presentation on Thursday at a training on “Government Integrated Financial Management Information System Budget Preparation Subsystem For Ministries, Department and Agencies.”

The report stated that as of June 2021, the federal government’s retained revenue was N2.23tn, which is 67.3 per cent of prorata target of N3.3tn for the review period.

The total revenue comprises oil revenue of N492.44bn, non-oil tax revenue of N778.18bn, Company income tax of N397.02bn, Value Added Tax of N129bn and Customs collections of N234.02bn.

Other revenues amounted to N922.09bn, of which Independent revenues was N558.13bn.

According to the report, “On the expenditure side, N5.81tn (representing 92.4% of the prorated budget) has been spent. This excludes GOEs’ and project-tied debt expenditures.

“N2.02tn was for debt service (35% of FGN expenditures); and N1.795tn for Personnel cost, including Pensions (30.9% of FGN revenues).”

It stated that as of August, N1.3tn had been released for capital expenditure, representing 22.3 per cent of total expenditure.

Experts and critics have been raising the alarm over the sustainability of Nigeria’s debt, now standing at N33 trillon, in the long run.