The Federal Government has revealed that, while the celebrations for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s first anniversary continue, it has made significant progress in cutting the N7.3 trillion Ways and Means it inherited by paying the total of N4.8 trillion.
This was said today in Abuja during the Ministerial Press Briefing on the accomplishments of his Ministry during the President’s one-year administration by Mr. Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. He disclosed that N2.5 trillion will be paid in the second quarter of 2024, on top of the N4.8 trillion already paid.
Regarding debt repayment The Minister went on to say that the government has mostly funded debt service obligations, including foreign debt service, without using its Ways and Means account because of increased budgetary restraint.
He went on to say that these payments comprised unfulfilled obligations and ownership interests to international organizations and multilateral development banks (MDBs), including the Islamic Development Bank, which received over $200 million of them. He said that the National Single Window project might generate $2.7 billion in economic benefits per year.
In order to lower the overall number of taxes in the nation, Edun continued, the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee (PFPTRC) was working to harmonize taxes and streamline the tax collection process. He claimed that the committee has developed strategies for expanding the tax base and advancing the single-digit tax system.
The Minister mentioned that oil revenue increased, noting that in the first quarter of 2024, oil revenue reached N1.1 trillion, compared to N460 billion in the same time of the previous year (2023).
The Minister underlined that the oil revenue resulted from an extraordinary rise in oil production, which increased from 1.3 million barrels per day in June 2023 to 1.7 million barrels per day in the first quarter of this year.
According to the Minister, the Federal Government’s revenue from GOEs has also significantly grown (Q1’2024 N835.7B vs. Q1’2023). The implementation of technology-driven strategic tools to automatically remove revenue owing to FGN made feasible the period under consideration’s excellent revenue record. In a similar vein, the new revenue model has increased FX income for the FGN.
In particular, the Nigeria Customs Service reported historically high revenue mobilization in the first quarter of 2023—an 87% rise—and in Q1 2024—a 122% increase over Q1 2023.
Furthermore, he reported that the Federal Inland Revenue reported a 56% increase in revenue in Q1 2024 over Q1 2023 and a 107% attainment of the 2023 plan.
The government established the Incentives Monitoring & Evaluation Platform (IMEP) in accordance with the Fiscal Policies & Financial Management Edun, in order to avoid the exploitation of tax incentives by restricting access and preventing those who do not qualify for the incentives from using them.
“We also strengthened the implementation of fiscal policies around the Import Duty Tax Incentive to boost key economic sectors and deliver more sustainable socio-economic impacts”.