The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr Clem Agba, has disclosed that Federal Government spent a total of N1.57tn on debt servicing in the first six months of the year.
Agba said this in a presentation that was made available to the media in Abuja, Sunday by his Special Assistant on Media, Ojeifo Sufuyan.
He noted that of on government’s expenditure performance, N9.97tn was appropriated, while N4.45tn, representing 89.3 per cent of the pro rata N4.99tn was expended. The minister stated that out of the expenditure, N1.57tn was for debt service, and N1.61tn for personnel cost, including pensions. He disclosed that as of end of June 2020, only N444.75bn had been released for capital expenditure, largely due to the budget revision exercise. Agba, however, noted that this had increased to about N1bn by July 2020. The minister said the country was cutting its crude oil production by about 300,000 barrels daily to keep agreement reached by members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies. Agba said the decision to cut crude oil production by OPEC and its allies, a group that is popularly referred to as OPEC+, was in order to stabilise the global oil market.