States in the south-south region of the country received N206.25 billion, the highest allocation from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, in the first quarter of 2018, according to latest data released by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI. The report titled, ‘Analysis of FAAC Disbursements for the First Quarter of 2018,’ disclosed that the amount received by the six south-south states — Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Edo and cross River — accounted for 30.2 per cent of the total amount allocated to the 36 states.
In particular, the NEITI Quarterly Review, stated that Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta received allocations of N38.90 billion, N42.75 billion and N49.44 billion respectively, while Akwa Ibom, Edo and Cross River received N50.88 billion, N15.87 billion and N8.41 billion respectively. Generally, the report noted that FAAC disbursed a total of N1.938 trillion in the first quarter of 2018, representing an increase of 37.3 per cent when compared with N1.411 trillion shared during the same period in 2017 and 71.1 per cent of the N1.132 trillion shared in the same quarter of 2016.
Giving a breakdown of the allocations, the report explained that the Federal Government received N812.8 billion; the 36 states got N683.4 billion, while N393.3billion went to the 774 Local Governments. Further breakdown revealed that N655.2 billion was disbursed by FAAC in January, N635.6 billion in February, and N647.4 billion in March this year. According to NEITI, on allocations received by each state, the report revealed that Akwa Ibom got the highest amount of N50.44 billion while Osun State received the lowest net share of N4.99 billion, a variance of 920 per cengt between the highest and the lowest.
“These disparities in FAAC disbursements suggest differences in revenue capacities of different states and the implications for expenditure decisions in the affected states,” NEITI explained. In addition to the south-south states, N94.46 billion was disbursed by FAAC to north-west states, representing 13.82 per cent of the total allocation. Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Zamfara, Sokoto and Jigawa states received N16.21 billion, N19.66 billion, N14 billion, N12.78 billion, N9.17 billion, N12.44 billion and 14.20 billion respectively.
South-west states followed with the receipt of N82.29, representing 12.04 per cent of the total, as Osun, Ekiti, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo and Lagos received N4.99 billion, N8.81 billion, N9.40, N13.84 billion, N15.27 billion and N29.98 billion respectively. North-central states received an allocation of N70.78billion, accounting for 10.36 per cent of the total allocations in the quarter under review. Kwara, Plateau, Benue, Kogi, Niger and Nasarawa states received N10.62 billion, N10.15 billion, N12.98 billion, N12.40 billion N13.45 billion and N11.18 billion respectively.
On the other hand, south-east states received the lowest allocation in the quarter under review, with Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Anambra and Abia getting N10.74 billion, N12.28 billion, N12.73 billion, N13.09 and N13.09 billion respectively. NEITI added that the “The amount disbursed in the first quarter of 2018 exceeded amounts disbursed in the previous 13 quarters, up to the fourth quarter of 2014. However, these amounts are still lower than amounts typically disbursed before the oil price crash of 2014. Prior to the crash in oil prices, quarterly disbursements exceeded N2 trillion.”
