BREAKING NEWS, Business
–
Akwa Ibom and Rivers State top the list of the states that collected the highest amount from the Excess Crude Account while the federal government received N3.29 trillion between 2011 and 2014
| By Maureen Chigbo | May 24, 2015 @ GMT|
NGOZI Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, has kept her word to provide details of the disbursement of money from the excess crude account, ECA, to the states. A statement from Paul Nwabuikwu, her spokesperson, on Sunday night, May 24, provided details of what the states got from the ECA within the past fours years. He said that “the Federal Ministry of Finance is making this information available in fulfilment of the pledge by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to make public details of the Excess Crude Account to clarify issues thrown up by recent claims made by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State on behalf of some governors”.
The statement said that in addition to their constitutionally approved receipts from the Federation Account, the 36 states received a total of N2.92 trillion from the Excess Crude Account between 2011 and 2014.
The figures show that they received N966.6 billion in 2011, N816.3 billion in 2012, N859.4 billion in 2013 and N282.8 in 2014. The low figure for 2014 reflects the steep decline in revenues due to the impact of the crash in global oil prices which began in the middle of the year.
States that got the highest amounts from the ECA are Akwa Ibom (N265 billion), Rivers (N230.4 billion), Delta (N216.7 billion), Bayelsa (N176.3 billion), Kano (N106.5 billion) and Lagos (N82.9 billion).
Kwara (N52.8 billion), Enugu (N51.6 billion), Gombe (N47.7 billion), Nassarawa (N46.9 billion), Ekiti (N46.8 billion) and Ebonyi (N44.3 billion) received the least amounts in that order. The federal government’s share from the ECA during the period was N3.29 trillion.
The summary of the inflows and outflows from the Account shows that the opening balance was $4.56 billion in 2011 and reached a peak the following year at $8.7 billion before declining to $2.3 billion in 2013. The balance as at May 2015 is $2.07 billion.
The fluctuation in the ECA reflects the sharing of the proceeds usually requested by state governors as well as the practice of augmentation which involves additional sharing from the ECA when available funds are not adequate to meet revenue projections.
Subsidy and SURE-P payments are also made from the Excess Crude Account.
|
Tags:
