According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Government had a N930.8 billion fiscal deficit in January and February 2023.
The estimated overall fiscal deficit of the FGN increased in February as a result of a decline in retained revenue, the CBN reported in its monthly economic report for February 2023.
“At N513.05 billion, the FGN’s provisional fiscal deficit increased by 22.8% from the previous month. However, it fell 16.2% short of the benchmark set by the budget.
The report states that the fiscal deficit for January was N417.75 billion.
According to the report, the accretion into the federation account fell by 60.2 percent in February compared to the month before and by 32.3 percent overall.
According to the report, the development caused the overall fiscal deficit (provisional) to increase by 22.8% as a result of a 16.4% increase in provisional FGN capital spending and a 7.7% decrease in FGN retained revenue.
At N46.25 trillion (23.2% of GDP) as of the end of December 2022, the total public debt was below the national ceiling of 40%.
“At N1.04tn, federation receipts were 32.3% below the level in January,” it said. Similarly, it fell by 34.3% short of the N1.58 trillion budget2.
“The decline, compared to January, was attributed to a decrease in petroleum profit tax and royalties collections. At N308.07 billion, oil revenue was 60.2% less than the previous month’s receipts.
The result was primarily caused by a 60.5% decline in petroleum profit tax and royalty collections.
Non-oil revenue, at N730.21bn, fell short of both the monthly target and the previous month’s level by 3.7% and 7.4%, respectively.
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Due to the seasonality of corporate tax payments, the decrease was largely attributed to a 10.5% drop in corporate tax collections.
