The budget deficit of the Federal Government (FG) increased month over month (MoM) by 0.1 percent, from N823.91 billion in March to N824.79 billion in April.

This was revealed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its Monthly Economic Report for April 2024.

Additionally, the study revealed that the deficit for the period was 7.92 percent greater than the N764.19 billion allocated.

The CBN claims that the increase in the deficit resulted from a 0.55 percent MoM drop in retained revenue, which went from N422.23 billion in March to N419.91 billion in April.

Reduced exchange gain receipts was the cause of the revenue decrease.

In a similar vein, lower capital spending caused the FG expenditure for April to drop MoM by 0.16 percent to N1.246 trillion from N1.244 trillion in March.

According to CBN, “the Federal Government of Nigeria’s, FGN, fiscal operations in April resulted in an expansion of the fiscal deficit.”

“Primary and total deficits increased to N260.98 billion and N824.79 billion, respectively, from N249.43 billion and N823.91 billion in the previous month, according to preliminary figures.

Because there were less exchange gain receipts throughout the review period, FGN’s retained revenue decreased.

According to preliminary figures, FGN retained revenue decreased by 0.55 and 74.29 percent, respectively, to N419.91 billion from the amount in March 2024 and the monthly benchmark.

“The preliminary figures indicated that lower capital spending was the reason for the FGN’s overall expenditure drop.

Provisional statistics showed that expenditures was N1,244.71 billion, 0.12% below than the previous month’s level and 48.10% less than the N2,398.12 billion budgeted amount.