The Minister, who was speaking while giving an Overview of the 2015 Budget, noted that “there have been challenges to the realization of the 2014 Budget revenue projections. For a number of reasons, chief among which is oil pipeline vandalism, and the resulting “shut-ins”, we faced a quantity shock in the sense that the quantity of oil produced averaged about 2.2 million bpd in the first 3 quarters of 2014 according to NBS data, falling short of the 2.38 million bpd projected in the Budget”.
She further noted that “the effects of this quantity shock is further compounded by the more recent price shock, with prices crashing from a peak of about $114 bpd earlier in June, to around $58 bpd now, which is below the Budget benchmark price of $77.5 bpd for this year. As a result, revenues will fall short of the Budget targets of N3.73 trillion”, adding that “as at the end of October, total revenues were about N2.72 trillion, so we won’t know the extent of the shortfall until government closes its books at the end of the year.
“But in spite of this challenge, we have managed to keep the country running. Recurrent Expenditure is being paid and government is running. We are aware of some MDAs, e.g. Education, where salary payments are delayed due to glitches in IPPIS. This is being rectified and all will be paid this December.
“Nevertheless, we have managed to keep most of our priority projects going with the support of SURE-P resources. Of the N1.12 trillion in the Budget, the sum of N610 billion has been released (as at the end of October) with N465 billion of this amount only fully cash-backed. About 83.5 percent of the amount cash-backed had been utilized by MDAs as at the end of October”, she said.
Click here to read the full text of her overview of the 2015 Budget.
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