Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama
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The Federal Government has allayed fears of any shock to the economy if the United States government decides not to buy crude oil from Nigeria.
The US had in recent times stored huge volume of crude oil, which it considered would be enough to sustain it for a long time.
The US is also considering reducing imports of crude oil in view of its harsh economic climate.
However, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, while briefing journalists shortly after the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting on Thursday, said the Federal Government had before now anticipated the problem and was addressing it through the 2013 budget.
“The reason people have crisis is when anticipated occurrences are not taken care of. Such anticipated shocks in the economy have been taken care of in the 2013 budget,” he said.
The minister said such development was the reason for the establishment of the Excess Crude Account.
This, he said, would help to take care of the possible slowdown in the export of crude oil by the country.
“We don’t normally spend all our income. That is why we do not really spend all that we earn. We have taken the slight slowdown out of the budget,” Ngama said.
Asked how much was left in the ECA, he said, “What was left in the account as at the end of December was $9.24bn, but it was drawn down to $8.24bn. But it has risen again to $9.2bn.”
Meanwhile, the sum of N575.46bn was shared among the three tiers of government for the month of January, 2013.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and signed by the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla, stated that the total distributable revenue for the month of January was N575.4bn.
He said of the amount shared, the Federal Government got N216.5bn or 52.68 per cent; state governments, N109.8bn or 26.72 per cent; local governments, N84.66bn or 20.60 per cent; while N47.43bn was given to the oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle for oil and gas mineral revenue.
In addition, N65.29bn was shared by the three tiers of government as proceeds from the Value Added Tax, while N35.54bn was shared from the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme.
Similarly, N651.26bn was realised as gross revenue for the month of January.
This was higher than the N581.05bn realised in December 2012 by N70.20bn.