Daily Watch – Nigeria’s revenue collection costs go up, Ghana’s Parliament passes provisional budget

6th January 2025

Gunmen have killed the Katsina State Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeder Association of Nigeria, Surajo Leader, and two others in Kusada Local Government Area (LGA) of the state. The incident occurred last Saturday night when the gunmen invaded the Mai Rana community in Kusada LGA. Sources revealed that the gunmen also abducted two of the deceased wives and his daughter, an undergraduate student. The Katsina Police Command spokesperson, Abubakar Aliyu, who confirmed the incident, said that police operatives responded and engaged the gunmen in a shootout. He said that the gunmen were forced to flee, leaving one of their operational vehicles and one of the abducted wives. Meanwhile, terrorists invaded Natsini, a community in Argungun Local Government Area of Kebbi State, killing two police officers and rustling nearly 200 cattle. 

The cost of revenue collection by Nigeria’s key revenue-collecting agencies—namely the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC)—has continued to rise despite improved technology that has made revenue collection easier and more efficient. The three agencies jointly received a total of ₦924.73 billion as part of the cost of revenue collection between January and November 2024. Analysis of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursements during the period showed that ₦924.73 billion disbursed to the agencies in 2024 represents 2.51 per cent of the total of ₦36.952 trillion collected by the agencies as of November 2024. In 2023, the three agencies collectively generated a total sum of ₦22.344 trillion and received ₦472.13 billion, or 2.11 per cent, as the cost of collection.

Ghana’s parliament has passed a provisional budget that allows the government to spend 68.1 billion Ghanaian cedis ($4.65 billion) through March, the chamber’s speaker said, narrowly averting an unprecedented government shutdown. A provisional budget is typically passed in November during election years to cover the gap until the president-elect takes office.  But the presentation of the provisional budget had dragged this time after an impasse over whether the outgoing New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the incoming National Democratic Congress (NDC) party has a majority of seats in the House. Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam told the joint business and finance committees the late passage of the provisional budget would not affect government business. Almost a third of the approved amount is earmarked for payments to energy-sector service providers, according to the provisional budget.

Egypt is expected to receive a $1.2 billion disbursement from the International Monetary Fund in January 2025 as part of an $8 billion programme with the international lender, Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said on Sunday. In December 2024, the IMF said it reached a staff-level agreement with Egypt on the fourth review of the 46-month Extended Fund Facility arrangement, potentially unlocking the $1.2 billion disbursement. “The (IMF’s executive) board will convene in January and, God willing, we will receive the amount in January,” Kouchouk told ON TV in an interview, adding Egypt had not requested an increase to the $8 billion loan. Kouchouk also said Egypt is targeting about $3 billion in the remainder of the current fiscal year, which runs until the end of June, through “diverse issuances” to investors, without elaborating further.