The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) rose from its meeting held in Abuja today with total revenue distributions from the Federation Account to the three tiers of government totalling N647.39 billion for the month of February.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who is also the Chairman of the committee, told journalists at the end of the meeting that the total sum of shared to the Federal State and Local Governments was N11.836 billion higher than the N635.554 billion distributed in the previous month.
A breakdown of the revenue accruals to the Federation Accounts indicated that statutory revenue accounted for N557.943 billion of the total revenue while Value Added Tax (VAT) accounted for the balance of N89.447 billion.
The Minister said that the Federal Government received N257.927 billion of the net statutory revenue allocation while the State and Local Governments’ share of the statutory revenue was N130.824 billion and N100.86 billion, respectively.
The 13% derivation accounted for the balance of the statutory revenue of N57.356 billion and was distributed to the oil producing states based on their oil production capacities and revenue accruals to the Federation Account therefrom.
The 36 states received N42.935 billion as VAT distributions while the Federal and Local Governments got N12.88 billion and N30.054 billion respectively from the revenue source.
Commenting on the lingering states’ contention with the revenue paid by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation into the Federation Account, the Minister confirmed that the FAAC would meet with the management of the corporation to reconcile the revenue figures.
She clarified: “The NNPC is a major channel of our mineral revenue. Some issues have been raised by the States on the revenue paid into the Federation Account by NNPC.
“These are being looked into and within the next 48 hours, we will be a joint meeting with the NNPC Group Managing Director to address the concerns of the States. The reconciliation of the revenue figures is part of a healthy process to ensure transparency and accountability,” Adeosun said.
In his remarks, the Chairman of Finance Commissioners’ Forum, Mahmoud Yenusa, explained that the reconvening of the meeting had become necessary to enable states pay workers their salaries.
He explained: “The account submitted by the NNPC is not acceptable to the States but we are willing to jointly reconcile the revenue figure with the leadership of NNPC.
“We agreed last night to reconvene the meeting for the benefits of Nigerian workers at all tiers of government, to enable them receive their salaries,” the Adamawa State Commissioner of Finance said.
Meanwhile, the Accountant General of Federation on Wednesday signed the mandates for the Central Bank of Nigeria to pay the approved revenue allocation into the accounts of the Federal, State and Local Governments.
