By Babajide Komolafe

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said the country earned N1.104 trillion from crude oil in the first two months of the year.

The apex bank disclosed this in its monthly economic report for February released yesterday.

The report indicated that revenue from oil into the federation account rose by 9.9 percent from N474.40 billion in January to N630.14 billion in February.

Cumulatively, this translates to N1.104 trillion earnings from crude oil into the federation in the first two months of the year.

Meanwhile, the report also showed that the Federal Government overspent its budget by N163.26 billion in January and February.

According to CBN, Federal Government’s deficit dropped by 47 percent to N57.7 billion in February from N105.47 billion in January.

The sharp drop in deficit was occasioned by 8.2 percent increase in Federal Government retained revenue, which rose to N284.47 billion in February from N262.88 billion in January.

The report said: “At N284.47 billion, the estimated Federal Government retained revenue for February 2014  exceeded the receipts in the preceding month by 8.2 percent, but was lower than the monthly budget estimate by 30.4 per cent.

“Of the total amount, the Federation Account accounted for 82.6 percent, while FGN Independent Revenue, SURE-P, and VAT Pool Accounts, accounted for 7.5, 5.7 and 4.2 per cent, respectively.

“At N342.25 billion, total estimated expenditure for February 2014 was above the level in the preceding period by 0.7 percent, but lower than the monthly budget estimate by 29.1 per cent.”