Nigeria's oil revenue falls by 80%

<p>Oil revenues have dropped by 80 percent in Nigeria, government officials said Tuesday.It’s a huge challenge for the first Sub-Saharan economy highly reliant on the black gold.</p> <p>General Manager in charge of Budgets, Ben Akabueze said ‘‘Our forecast oil revenues have decreased by more than 80%. We had to lower our budget to bring it down to a base of $20 per barrel’‘.</p> <p>In March, the government of Africa’s most populous nation announced a drastic reduction in its budget of about 15 percent due to fall in oil prices to $33.8 billion.</p> <p>Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed said ‘‘Nigeria is facing the double challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic and collapse of the price of crude oil’‘.</p> <p>The International Monetary Fund had forecast a contraction of the economy to at least 3. 4 percent in 2020.</p> <p>Last week, the <span class="caps">IMF</span> approved emergency funds of $3.4 billion to help the West African nation better cope with the current crisis. </p> <p>This is still insufficient for Nigeria which hopes to borrow nearly $7 billion from various international institutions.</p> <p><strong><span class="caps">AFP</span></strong></p>

Nigeria is facing the double challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic and collapse of the price of crude oil.