FG earned N3.5tn in six months – Minister
By Ifeanyi Onuba, Abuja
Wednesday, 7 Sep 2011

A sum of N3.5tn was realised by the Federal Government as revenue in the first six months of this year, the Minister of National Planning Commission, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, has said.


The minister gave the figure in Abuja at a media briefing to mark President Goodluck Jonathan’s 100 days in office.


Present at the briefing were the Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, his counterparts at the ministries of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku; and Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, respectively.


Usman said the amount, which represented an increase of 9.44 per cent over what was earned in the corresponding period of 2010 was 22.89 per cent of the country’s nominal Gross Domestic Product.


The minister said that owing to the various reforms spearheaded by the Jonathan administration, the positive trend witnessed in revenue generated would be sustained.


He put the country’s external reserves as at the end of last month at $35bn, adding that the amount was an improvement of $3bn over the position in May.


He said, “On the fiscal side, the various reforms embarked upon have paid off, as total revenue receipts from both oil and non oil sources during the first half of 2011 surpassed the figures for the corresponding period of 2010, due to improvements in oil production.


“In this regard, revenue collected during the first half of 2011 increased by 9.44 per cent to N3.511bn or 22.89 per cent of nominal GDP as against N3.20bn in 2010. This trend is expected to be sustained in the future.”


In order to ensure the effective implementation of the development plan of the Federal Government as encapsulated by the Vision 2020 blueprint, the government approved the establishment of a specialised department to monitor and evaluate the performance of MDAs.


Usman said the move was a radical departure from the old experience where lack of monitoring and evaluation became the bane of the country’s development strategies.


He said, “For the first time, key performance indicators have been developed for all the MDAs to facilitate the tracking of policies, programmes and projects.”


Usman pointed out that the monitoring and evaluation report for the first half of this year would soon be released, adding that the move was consistent with government’s commitment to transparency and public accountability.


On partnership with development partners, the minister said that the commission had reviewed its develo

pment assistance in order to ensure that donor assisted programmes were delivered in line with the country’s economic agenda.

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Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji