Nigeria Says Poor Revenue Collection Hinders Budget Performance

Nigeria has attributed the slow pace of development and executes its annual budget effectively to weak revenue generation profile of the West African country, its finance minister ha said.
A statement by the media adviser to the minister said Zainab Ahmed acknowledges and points out the challenge of revenue generation by the country.

“What we have is revenue problem and when revenues perform at the aggregate rate of 55 per cent it hinders the ability to operate our budget. So it hinders our ability to service all categories of expenditures including salaries, allowances, capitals as well as debts.
Ahmed said the finance ministry was not resting on its oars with regards to boosting the nation’s revenue.
“What we are doing at the Ministry of Finance is concentrating and enhancing our revenue and collection capacities.”
The finance minister was however happy that Nigeria’s borrowing still remains at 19 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“In the borrowing, we are still at 19 per cent to GDP, our borrowing is still low. What is allowed by our Fiscal Responsibility Act is the maximum of 25 per cent of our GDP compared to other countries like; Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Angola and Brazil and we are the lowest in terms of borrowing.”
With regards to the alleged planned removal of subsidy, the finance minister was quoted to have said that the “difference on the issue of subsidy as compared to previous regimes where subsidy was paid to marketers, but this time around
“NNPC is the sole importer of petroleum products, and so when they import, they deduct that cost of business before they remit the little money to the federation account. So that is completely different.”
She also added that “It is more cost effective, it is cheaper and what is being done now is easier to monitor.”