Recently released report by Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)shows a significant decline in revenue allocation across the three tiers of government for 2016H1 (January to June). Specifically, total disbursements dropped (year-on-year) by 30.45 percent to N2.01 trillion in 2016H1. The drop in revenue allocations is accountable to the decline in both oil and non-oil revenue. While lower oil revenue was triggered by the drastic fall in oil price and production in 2016H1, lower non-oil revenue was driven by the decline in tax revenue occasioned by contraction in economic activities in the review half-year.

The naira/dollar exchange rate remained largely stable at the parallel market at ?320/$ during the period7, albeit slight fluctuations on February 29, 2016 (?325/$) and March 2, 2016 (?328/$). The decline in the hoarding of foreign currency as well as the substantial reduction in the speculative demand for dollars were the two key factors responsible for the ease of fluctuations in the forex market8. With the slight increase in the price of crude oil, Nigerias foreign reserve slightly grew by $56 million, from 27.81 billion to $27.84 billion9. With the continued increase in the price of crude oil, a modest build-up of foreign reserve to guard against unfavourable commodity price movements is expected in the near term.