NIGERIA SPENT N82 TRILLION SINCE 1999 -CBN

About N82 trillion was spent by federal, states and local governments in the last 15 years of democratic rule, Central Bank of Nigeria document obtained by Daily Trust has shown.

The CBN document showed that the money was earned from oil and non-oil revenues from 1999 to 2013. It was 28 times the amount received in previous 15 years (1984 to 1998).
About N64 trillion or 78 per cent of the total revenue in the last 15 years came from the oil sector while N18 trillion or 22 percent was derived from taxes and customs duties.
This was N5.5 trillion annually on average income to the federation within the period under review.
Nigeria holds 33 billion or 2.3 percent of the world oil reserves as well as 5.1 trillion cubic metres or 2.6 percent of natural gas reserves of the world, making it the largest owner of oil reserves in Africa.
But the country is far below in terms of provision of infrastructure in the continent or among its peers in Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
From the CBN document, the federal government earned about N31 trillion within the period under review, an average of N2 trillion annually, while over N25.9 trillion or 68.3 percent of the money was spent on recurrent and N9.8 trillion or 25.9 percent for capital projects.
This signifies less attention given to infrastructure development such as electricity, roads, rail, and ports by various administrations within the period.
Despite the huge revenue, most public infrastructure at states and federal level are obsolete and only few states have achieved significant improvement in health care delivery, education and employment generation.
For instance, according to the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, 2013 conducted by the National Population Commission in collaboration with ICF International USA only three states scored 80 percent and above out of 36 states on improved drinking water.
Also, based on the data from the respondents in the survey 11 states have been categorized under non improved drinking water.
The survey indicated that the residents of the 14 out of the 19 northern states have less than 50 percent access to electricity.
Experts say that unless significant portion of the nation’s revenue was allocated to capital project financing, there will be huge gap in the infrastructure development.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), public infrastructure is an essential factor of production. “Increasing public infrastructure investment raises output in the short and long term, particularly during periods of economic slack and when investment efficiency is high,” it states.
Aside the huge revenue received, the country has collected debts mostly from the domestic sources through issuance of Treasury bill and bonds at the capital market to augment the deficit in various budgets which led to the increment in the expenditure spending.
Domestic debt at the end of June this year stood at N7.42 trillion or $46.1 billion, equivalent to 9.2 per cent of the rebased 2013 gross domestic products (GDP), the quarterly data released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) has revealed.
Among the sectors, Daily Trust gathered that electricity so far consumed highest amount from the resources. The sector gulped nearly N4 trillion ($26 billion) since the beginning of the power reforms in 1999.
In 1999 when the democratic government took over, the power generation was around 1,800 mw. Since then, the generation capacity has improved to about 4,500 mw, meaning only 2700 mw is added to the system despite the huge investment and promises by the leaders.
The latest report on the Nigeria Infrastructure Index by the World Economic Forum in its 2012-2013 titled: The Global Competitiveness Index, ranked Nigeria as 130th of 144 countries in terms of infrastructural development.
The report observed that Nigeria’s best effort was made in 2006 with a 21.49% performance. There has been consistent deterioration in the rankings as well as scores..
According to the Chiroman Gombe Barrister Zubair Muhammad Usman, the trillions earned over the years were not commensurate with development at all levels of government.
He said this is so because the relevant governments did not utilise the money they received within the period for the common good, adding that this is a serious indictment on the past and present administrations.
He said it doesn’t matter what type of government is in operation. “With good leadership and sense of commitment things will change; that is why countries like United Arab Emirates, Qatar and China excel,” he added.
“With that amount, all I can say is that our past and present leaders might not have really appreciated the need by Nigeria to move beyond where it is, they left us as we are, but with that kind of resources and credible leadership, things would certainly have been much better than what it is now.”