The three tiers of government in Nigeria – Federal, state and local governments – shared about N10 trillion from the Federation Account as statutory revenue allocations in 2023, Africa Today News, New York has learnt.
The Executive Secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, disclosed this in a report on the Federation Account revenue allocations for the year 2023 released in Abuja on Tuesday.
Orji said the NEITI FAAC Quarterly Review was carried out to enhance public understanding of Federation Account allocations and disbursements as published by government.
He explained that the ultimate objective of the report was to strengthen knowledge, awareness and promote public accountability of all institutions in public finance management.
He said a breakdown of the revenue receipts showed that the federal government received N3.99 trillion, representing 39.37 percent of the total allocation.
He added that the 36 states got N3.585 trillion representing 35.34 percent while the 774 local government councils shared N2.56 trillion, equivalent to 25.28 percent.
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“A further analysis of the N10.143 trillion disbursements in 2023 showed an increase of N1.934 trillion or 23.56 percent when compared to the disbursement of N8.209 trillion shared in 2022.
“The review attributed the increase to improved revenue remittances to the Federation Account due to the removal of petrol subsidy and the floating of the exchange rate by the new administration.
“The report highlighted that while total revenues distributed from the account recorded an increase of 23.56 percent in 2023, the increase accruing to each tier of government varied due to the type of the revenue streams contributing to the inflows into the Federation Account,” he said.
The executive secretary said the NEITI Quarterly Review of 2023 FAAC allocations revealed that the federal, state and local governments cumulatively received N1.934 trillion more than the amount shared in 2022.
He said allocation for the first quarter of 2023 increased by N579.71billion (33.19 percent) when compared to the first quarter of 2022, while the second, third and fourth quarters increased by 10.32 percent, 27.49 percent and 23.42 percent respectively.
“The Federal Government’s share increased by N574.21 billion (16.79 percent) from the N3.42 trillion it received in 2022 to N3.99 trillion in 2023.
“The state governments shared N3.59 trillion in 2023 compared to the N2.76 trillion they got in 2022, showing an increase of 29.99 percent.
“Similarly, local government councils’ share of federation allocation was N2.57 trillion in 2023 compared to N2.032 trillion in 2022, which amounts to a 26.22 percent increase, while total distributed revenue from the Federation account recorded an increase of 23.56 percent in 2023,” he said.
He explained that the increase that accrued to each tier of government varied, largely due to the type of revenue item that contributed to the inflows into the Federation Account.
“In the same period (2023), states and local governments recorded increases in their allocations of 29.99 percent and 26.22 percent respectively.
“The increase in allocation to the Federal Government, however, was 16.79 per cent,” he said.
Orji further said the state-by-state share of the allocations showed that Delta State received the largest share of N402.26 billion (gross), followed by Rivers which received N398.53 billion.
According to him, the figure is inclusive of the state’s share of oil and gas derivation revenue.