Ben Akabueze, Director-general, budget office of the federation, has said Nigeria is deliberately diversifying in 2022, as oil revenue failed to meet its projected target in 2021.
Akabueze, who stated this during a webinar organised by Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, tagged “2021 Market Recap and Outlook for 2022′, said Nigeria’s revenue trajectory is positive as non-oil revenue performed better than oil revenue in 2021.
Akabueze said: “What we have seen is that when you look at the 2015 budget, for instance, oil revenue was 58% of FGN’s projected revenue. If you look at the 2022 budget oil revenue is 35 percent,”
“So, basically, as a matter of deliberate strategy, we are focusing on non-oil revenue; and when you look at the results that we achieved in 2021, we were very encouraged that this is moving in the right direction.
“In 2021, non-oil revenue came in at 15 percent above target while VAT came in at 69% above target, customs revenue collections came in at 10 percent above target.
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“Federal government’s independent revenues, mostly transfers from our government-owned enterprises, came in at 18 percent above target.
“What led us down in 2021 was the oil sector, and oil let us down fiscally for three reasons.”
