Nigeria government revenues hit 614.36 bln naira in March, down 7.8 pct month/month

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's government revenues fell 7.8 percent month-on-month to 614.36 billion naira in March, from 666.75 billion naira received the previous month, due to oil outages, Accountant General Jonah Otunla said on Wednesday. But total revenue to be distributed to the three tiers of government in Africa's largest economy - federal, state and local - came to 641.38 billion naira in March, almost unchanged from 641.29 billion naira in February, the accountant general said. "The decline in mineral revenue was attributed to production shut-in at Qua Iboe Terminal and shutdown of Forcados, also oil theft and some repair works on pipeline leaks at Bonny and Brass Terminals," Otunla said. Africa's biggest oil producer relies on its energy business for 80 percent of government revenues. Its excess crude account, Nigeria's oil savings, had $3.6 billion as of April 11, compared with $3.4 billion in February, Otunla said. Nigeria transferred 79.45 billion naira ($491 mln) into the account in March, down from 135.413 billion naira in February, but also tapped the account to help cover the money it distributed to run the government. ($1 = 161.70 naira)