Nigeria’s cost of repaying debt surpassed the revenue realized in the first quarter of 2022, the federal government announced on Thursday.
Minister of Finance and Budget, Zainab Ahmed called for urgent and concerted actions to address the situation.
In the January-April fiscal performance report, total revenue stood at N1.63trillion, while debt servicing stood at N1.94trillion.
Though oil and gas revenue was projected at N3.12trillion, only N1.23trillion was realized as at April 30.
The underperformance was caused by pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, petrol subsidy cost and higher landing costs of imported products.
“Revenue performance is expected to improve in the second half of 2022 as a result of concerted efforts to address the oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
“Improved revenue collection should also moderate the Debt Service to Revenue ratio, which is currently above our target level”, the report said.
It showed that federal government’s share of oil revenues in Q1 2022 was N285.38billion (39 percent performance); non-oil tax revenues was N632.56billion.
Company income tax (CIT) and value-added tax (VAT) as CIT and VAT collections were N298.83billion and N102.97billion, representing 99 percent and 98 percent of targets.
The report linked Nigeria’s reduced revenue to factors, including recent economic recessions and the effect of the Russia-Ukraine war on food and energy prices.