Nigeria's oil revenue falls by 80%

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.

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’‘.

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.

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

Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed said ‘‘Nigeria is facing the double challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic and collapse of the price of crude oil’‘.

The International Monetary Fund had forecast a contraction of the economy to at least 3. 4 percent in 2020.

Last week, the IMF approved emergency funds of $3.4 billion to help the West African nation better cope with the current crisis.

This is still insufficient for Nigeria which hopes to borrow nearly $7 billion from various international institutions.

AFP