The Coronavirus Has Impacted Nigeria’s Oil Revenue – FG

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed has come out to say that the outbreak of Coronavirus has impacted the country’s oil revenue negatively.

Zainab revealed this as she answered questions from State House correspondents at the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday.

According to her, the international oil price has reduced to 52dollars below the budget benchmark of 57dollars per barrel, and this affected Nigeria’s estimated revenue for the fiscal year.

She, however, added that nation’s oil production has increased between two million barrels and 2.1 million barrels per day.

His words, “We are concerned about the current drop in oil price because it’s now below our budget.

“I am glad to inform you that our oil production as of today is two million barrels per day and at times slightly higher. That in its self will be a cushioning effect for us in the current oil price.

“We will do a mid-term review, and if the impact is so much, we will need to do an adjustment in the budget working together with the National Assembly.”

“This is not a new contract; it was previously approved by the council in 2017 in the sum of $2.89 billion. The memo of today is at a revised cost of 2.571 billion dollars, equivalent to a 10 percent discount of the original sum.

“The previous contract was a contractor financing model, the contract that has been approved today is an EPC lump sum contract with the NNPC required to pay 15 per cent of the contract amount while the 85 per cent will be provided by Cynosure of China in the form of loan facility with a sovereign guarantee.

“We have done an extensive review of this project and we are satisfied that the cash flows from the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline project is sufficient to pay the facility itself.

“This project is one of the cardinal policies of this administration and it is very strategic to national development.”