Total federally-collected revenue (gross) increased by 30.3 per cent, to N7, 317.7 billion in 2017, above the level in 2016. The Central Bank of Nigeria in its economic report has shown.
According to the apex bank, the development reflected improvement in crude oil price and production as well as stronger drive for non-oil revenue. Overall, oil revenue (gross) accounted for N4,109.8 billion or 56.2 per cent of the total (3.6 per cent of GDP), while non-oil revenue at N3,207.9 billion, accounted for 43.8 per cent of the total revenue.
Consequently, the consolidated revenue and expenditure of the federal government was N8,884.9 billion and N11,938.0 billion respectively, resulting in an overall deficit of N3,053.1 billion (2.7 per cent of GDP).
The Federal Government retained revenue and aggregate expenditure were N4,622.6 billion and N6,896.5 billion, respectively, resulting in estimated deficit of N2,273.9 billion, or 2.0 per cent of GDP, compared with the deficit of N2,675.0 billion, or 2.6 per cent of GDP in 2016.
Conversely, the performance of the external sector improved in 2017 as estimated overall balance of payments was a surplus of N3,737.37 billion in contrast to N247.84 billion deficit in 2016.
The positive trend reflected further improvement in the current account position, which recorded higher surplus of 2.8 per cent of GDP, relative to 0.7 per cent of GDP in 2016.
This was as a result of the trade surplus recorded in the goods account, driven, largely, by the improvement in both oil and non-oil export, and sustained inflow of workers’ remittances.
The capital and financial account recorded a net financial asset of 1.2 per cent of GDP, compared with a net financial liability of 0.7 per cent of GDP in 2016, attributed largely to higher credits, foreign currency holdings by banks and increased external reserves.
Notably, the stock of external reserves, at end-December 2017, was US$39.35 billion and could finance 14.5 months of import of goods only or 9.3months of import of goods and services.
This exceeded both the international benchmark and the West African Monetary Zone convergence criterion of three months import cover. The stock of external debt at end-December 2017 was US$18.91billion or 5.0 per cent of GDP and remained within the threshold of 40.0 per cent.
The international investment position recorded a higher net liability of US$57.80 billion, indicating an increase of 9.7 per cent over the US$5 2.70 billion in the preceding period.
Also, the sustained intervention and policy reforms of the CBN at the foreign exchange market, particularly the introduction of weekly sales of foreign exchange for invisible transactions, special window for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the establishment of the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window, stabilised the exchange rate during the review period.
