Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed has said that the balance in Nigeria savings account popularly called excess crude account stood at $35,876,615.68 as at the end of March 2022. Stabilisation account has a balance of N31,298,533,315.68 while the balance in the Development of Natural Resources account stood at N55,539,568,212.67 as at March 2022. Zainab made the report to the National Economic Council in Abuja. The balance had fallen drastically by $2billion from the $2.1 billion left by Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) balance as of October 2021 was $60, 857,773.43. According to Nigeria Economic Council records “Excess Crude Account (ECA) balance as at 13th October 2021 stood at $60, 857,773.43; Stabilisation Account, balance as of 13th October stands at N25,009,892,511.55; Development of Natural Resources Account balance as at 13th October 2021 stands at N56,144,024,000.71,” the statement said. This shows that the balance had reduced drastically by $2billion from the $2.1 billion left by Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, People’s Gazette reports.
Created in 2004 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the sole aim of saving oil revenue in excess of the budgeted benchmark, the ECA stood at $3.6 billion in February 2014, one of the highest balances on record. In 2015, the former minister of finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the country earned $61.7 billion as excess crude oil money between 2011 and 2015. The minister said Nigeria earned about $18.14 billion in 2011; $18.16 billion in 2012; $15.19 billion in 2013; $8.01 billion in 2014, and $2.17 billion in 2015. As of August 2015, after Buhari assumed office, it stood at $2.2 billion but it gradually depleted. The Central Bank of Nigeria in its 2018 report said that the country’s excess crude account fell from $2.45 billion in 2017 to $480 million as of December 2018.
Statistics from the ministry of finance had also revealed that the Buhari regime withdrew N1.5 trillion (about $4.92bn) between 2015 and 2019 from the account. $1 billion was withdrawn in 2017 on basis that it will be used to procure arms and train personnel in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East. A 2020 analysis by BudgIT, a civic organisation had indicated that Nigeria’s excess crude oil under Mr Buhari stood at $631 million in December 2018, $324 million in October 2019, and fell to $70 million in February 2020. The account dropped from $72.4 million to $35 million in February 2021 in a space of one year despite crude oil averaging higher than Nigeria’s benchmark for the year.
The ECA is a savings account retained by the Federal Government and is funded by the difference between the market price of crude oil and the budgeted price of crude oil as contained in the appropriation bill. The prices of crude in the international oil market has risen but the excess crude account remain low. The rise in oil price is largely ascribed to the Russia invasion of Ukraine. Russia Produces 17% of the world’s gas and 12% of the crude oil. Russia exports using pipelines that pass through Ukraine, invasion of Ukraine has caused a cut in supply. This has resulted in less supply to meet demand, therefore, driving up the global price of crude oil. When the N17 trillion 2022 budget was passed, the Oil benchmark price stood at $62, it would mean that the Nigerian government intends to fund the year’s budget with the oil prices at an average of $62 per barrel. With oil price above $100 the excess crude account should have an accretion of the amount above the budget bench mark The Excess Crude Account is meant to save up money when the price of crude oil exceeds the budgeted benchmark. Despite Increased Prices, Nigeria’s Low Crude Oil Production Impacts ECA Gains
