Debt servicing surpassed Nigeria’s generated revenue in the first quarter of this year, the Ministry of Finance revealed on Thursday.
In the fiscal performance report released by the ministry, the country paid N1.94 trillion on debt servicing during the period.
This was higher than N1.63 trillion the Federal Government generated as revenue in the first three months of the year.
This highlighted the government’s revenue problem, and showed that the country didn’t make enough money to pay its debt for the period.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had projected early this year that Nigeria would spend N92 of every N100 made to service debt.
The report read: “The aggregate expenditure for 2022 is estimated at N17.32 trillion, with a prorata spending target of N5.77 at end of April.
The actual spending as of April 31st was N4.72 trillion. Of this amount, N1.94 trillion was for debt service, and N1.26 trillion was for personnel costs, including pensions.
“As at April, N773.63 billion has been spent on capital expenditure. As of April 2022, FGN’s retained revenue was only N1.63 trillion, 49 percent of the prorata target of N3.32 trillion.”
The breakdown of revenue generated by the federal government through the various sources revealed the following: oil (N285.38 billion), non-oil (N632.56 billion), while company income tax (CIT) and value-added tax (VAT) generated N401.8 billion.
It added: “CIT and VAT collections were N298.83 billion and N102.97 billion, representing 99 percent and 98 percent of their respective targets.”
“Customs collections (made up of import duties, excise and fees, as well as federation account special levies) trailed target by N76.77 billion (25.42 percent).
“Other revenues amounted to N664.64 billion, of which independent revenue was N394.09 billion.”
