ABUJA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's oil revenue grew from 11 percent in the first half (H1) of 2023 to 30 percent in H1 2024, with the economy growing faster due to ongoing reforms, a senior government official said Friday.
The growth in government revenue has been largely due to the "reconfiguration and improvement in government finances," Minister of Finance Wale Edun said in a statement obtained Friday by Xinhua in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
Highlighting the growth across sectors, Edun, who also serves as the coordinating minister of the economy, said that the economic activities in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 were not only faster than Q1 of 2023 but were also the second fastest first-quarter growth in the past six years.
While attributing the positive economic performance to "the government's well-coordinated fiscal and monetary policies," the minister said the agricultural sector in particular had recovered from negative in Q1 of 2023 to modest growth in Q1 of 2024.
He emphasized the government's determination to mobilize non-oil revenue has consistently delivered impressive results, saying for H1 2024, non-oil revenue surpassed the revenue in H1 2023 by 30 percent, and above the 2024 budget target without increasing taxes.
Edun said the government aimed to further improve revenue through increased oil production and sales while enhancing the fiscal policy landscape to attract more investments into the sector. He declared that the government had reduced its debt burden in dollar terms, and improved fiscal deficit, saying it also planned to continue to yield positive results with ongoing economic reforms.
"Our debt has fallen in dollar terms from 108 billion U.S. dollars to 91 billion dollars. Additionally, the government has diligently serviced all its loans and obligations with no recourse to ways and means of financing," he added.
In their separate forecasts earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank predicted a growth of 3.3 percent for Nigeria's economy for 2024, up from 2.9 percent last year.
While the World Bank affirmed that the Nigerian economy was mildly buoyant in the early part of the year despite macroeconomic adjustments, the IMF cited a pick-up in the services and trade sectors.
