Excess Crude Account has declined by 89 per cent in the last eight years. It has slid from $4.1billion in November 2014 to $472,513million in the same period of 2022.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the reduction of ECA in the last eight years was due to a lack of inflows exacerbated by the country’s revenue crunch and oil market vagaries among others
The oil benchmark in the 2022 budget was $57, but the current oil prices are still about $30 above the benchmark. However, the ECA has been on the decline in spite of higher oil prices since early 2022 driven by the Russia-Ukraine war
While the Russia/Ukraine war may have provided Nigeria the opportunity to grow its wealth Nigeria failed to take advantage of the situation. Experts have continued to criticize the federal government for not acting when the opportunity presented itself.