Nigeria's Excess Crude Account (ECA) increased to 7.6 billion dollars in July from 5.8 billion dollars in June, Dr Yerima Ngama, the Minister of State, Finance said on Thursday.
Ngama and Mr Babayo Shehu, Director of Fund, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, made the disclosure last week in Abuja at the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
Both officials explained that out of this amount, 6.9 billion dollars was denominated in foreign currency (U.S. dollars) while the naira account was N115 billion.
Nigeria's Excess Crude Account (ECA) increased to 7.6 billion dollars in July from 5.8 billion dollars in June, Dr Yerima Ngama, the Minister of State, Finance said on Thursday.
Ngama and Mr Babayo Shehu, Director of Fund, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, made the disclosure last week in Abuja at the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
Both officials explained that out of this amount, 6.9 billion dollars was denominated in foreign currency (U.S. dollars) while the naira account was N115 billion.
Ngama, who spoke first at the media briefing, said a total of N207.86 billion was transferred to the account in June, compared with N86.391 billion the previous month.
With the addition, he said the balance of the excess crude account now stood at 6.9 billion dollars.
The minister of state said that the country was close to the target of 10 billion dollars, recently recommended by the National Economic Council.
“Once we reach that comfort level, then we can afford to do whatever we want to do with the money.
“But whoever examines the books will see that the government is strong financially, internally and externally; we have a reserve which is strong.
“And this is the essence of the policy we are pushing in the Ministry of Finance to ensure that this country is financially sound and outstanding as far as financial management is concerned. ’’
On his part, Shehu explained that the naira account was a combination of both the exchange gain difference and the excess amount from non-oil revenue.
He put the amount saved in the ECA at N115 billion.
Earlier, the minister had announced that the Federal Government, states and Local Governments shared N526.6 billion from the Federation Account in June.
He said the figure was N6.876 billion higher than the amount shared in May.
Ngama said the country received total revenue of N763.553 billion, compared with N579.301 billion in the previous month.
He attributed the increase to revenues from company income tax, import duties and petroleum profit tax on production sharing contracts and modified carry arrangements.
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