The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that the progressive rise in claims on the federal government, banks and other assets raised the value of the total assets of discount houses in Nigeria to N131 billion in November last year, 11.7 per cent increase from the previous month’s.
The apex bank explained that the development was accounted for largely by the 15.9, 14.8 and 7.6 per cent rise in claims on the federal government, banks and “others assets” respectively. Correspondingly, the increase in total liabilities was attributed, largely, to the 32.5 and 4.1 per cent rise in money at-call and other liabilities, which more than offset the 4.5 per cent fall in capital and reserves. The CBN made the disclosure in its latest Economy Report posted on its websites at the weekend, noting that discount houses’ investment in federal government securities of less than 91-day maturity rose by 9.0 per cent to N36.4 billion and accounted for 35.4 per cent of their total deposit liabilities. The report stated, “At that level, discount houses’ investment in Nigerian Treasury Bills rose by 16 per cent above the level at the end of the preceding month but was 24.6 percentage points below the prescribed minimum level of 60 per cent. Total borrowing by the discount houses was N45.07 billion, while their capital and reserves totalled N18.4billion.
This resulted in a gearing ratio of 2.4:1, compared with the stipulated maximum of 50:1for the fiscal year 2013.” Meanwhile, the CBN has also put the total gross federally-collected revenue for the month of November last year at N744.02 billion, showing a decline of 21.3 per cent below the monthly budget estimate, but an increase of 0.5 per cent above the receipt in the preceding month. The decline relative to the monthly budget estimate was attributed to the shortfall in both oil and non-oil revenue. However, gross oil receipts, which constituted 70.1 per cent of the total revenue, were lower than both the monthly budget estimate and the level in the preceding month by 19.1 and 1.0 per cent, respectively. The decline in oil revenue was attributed largely to the shortfall in receipts from crude oil and gas exports during the period. “At N222.74billion, gross non-oil receipts, (29.9per cent of the total) was below the monthly budget estimate by 25.9 per cent, but above the level in the preceding month by 4.1per cent “.
The fall in non-oil revenue relative to the monthly budget estimate was due largely to the shortfall in receipts from all the components, except Education Tax. “On cumulative basis, total federally collected revenue from January to November 2013 was estimated at N9036.53 billion, reflecting a decrease of 13.1and 8.6per cent below the budget estimate and the actual receipts in the corresponding period of 2012, respectively,” the report stated.
