Following the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic and dwindling oil prices which has led to a drop in Nigeria’s revenue, the Federal Government said it has identified new oil and non-oil initiatives that could help the country generate between N13tn to N18tn.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative, SRGI inaugurated last year would help the government in achieving this revenue growth target.
She made this disclosure while delivering a Keynote address during a webinar titled: Leveraging Data To Drive Inclusive Policy, Revenue Generation & Improved Governance in Nigeria organized by Softcom a Marketing and Innovation Company.
She noted that the pandemic and crash in crude oil price had drastically impacted on government’s revenue, but explained that the Federal Government had been adopting several measures to tackle the challenge.
“Under the SRGI, therefore, we have identified various revenue initiatives that could potentially generate N13tn to N18tn across both oil and non-oil sources and ensuring that we are able to achieve a 15 percent revenue to GDP target by 2023.
Importantly, we recognized that the support of states would be necessary to achieve the 15 percent target. In fact, the states would need to cumulatively generate about N3.4tn.
Analysis of revenue data shows that as of 2018, Nigeria’s revenue to GDP ratio stood at about eight percent, significantly below many comparator countries on the continent, as well as the continent average” she said.
Zainab further disclosed that the economy faced serious challenges in the first half of 2020, seeing about a 65 percent decline in projected net 2020 government revenues from the oil and gas sector, with adverse consequences for foreign exchange inflows.
She added that the government anticipated that these challenges would continue into the third quarter of this year.
Zainab was joined as a Keynote Speaker at the event by Dr. Yemi Kale, Statistician-General of the Federation and CEO National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
Panelist at the Webinar included Sarah Alade; Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Finance and a former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Deputy Governor, Shubham Chaudhuri; Country Director World Bank, Ben Akabueze; Director General Budget Office of the Federation, Prof Sidney Onyeagu; President Nigerian Statistical Association, Dr. Jania Okwechime; Associate Director, The West Africa Data Analytics Leader-Delloitte and Omoseindemi Olobayo; COO of Softcom.
The Webinar focused on discussing the new roles and opportunities for technology to aid economic inclusion through Data in Nigeria & the African continent at large.
