Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says all of the country’s oil savings since the inception of its savings history cannot fund 20 percent of 2017 budget.
In its second occassional paper series, NEITI said “Nigeria has about three decades of experience in implementing different oil revenue funds. However, attempts at oil revenue savings have been plagued by contested legal frameworks, governance issues and inadequate political will”.
“Nigeria has one of lowest natural resource revenue savings in the world. The balance in the three funds (0.5% stabilization fund, ECA and NSIA) is less than $3.9 billion, not enough to fund 20% of 2017’s federal budget.
“Nigeria’s $1.5 billion sovereign wealth fund is one of the lowest in the world, has one of the worst ratio to annual budget (10%), and one of the lowest SWF per capital ($8), better only than war-torn Iraq and crisis-hit Venezuela, but not by much.”
In simpler terms, if Nigeria’s oil savings were shared across the country, each citizen will have access to only $8, after over 60 years of oil exploration.