Nigeria’s Legislature has expressed concern over low remittances of revenues by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and some government-owned enterprises (GOEs) into the Federation Account in fiscal year 2024.
The Chairman of the Joint Finance Committee of Senate and House of Representatives, Sen. Sani Musa, expressed the National Assembly lawmakers’ worries on Monday at an interactive session on the MDAs’ revenue projections for 2025.
The MDAs represented at the meeting included those from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), and Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC).
The chairman of the joint committee said that the Senate was worried about the widening gap between the accruable revenues to the MDAs and their low remittances to the federation account, charging them on the need for fiscal discipline.
He lamented: “This trend undermines the government’s capacity to fund critical infrastructure and social services, calling to question issues of inefficiency, mismanagement and possible revenue leakages.”
While harping on the committee’s mandate of ensuring transparency, accountability and efficiency in the financial operations of the agencies, the lawmaker maintained that the committee would continue to appraise the MDAs’ revenue projections, performances and adherence to statutory remittance obligations to identify systematic lapses and recommend actionable results, where necessary, to reverse the ugly trend
To reverse the situation, Sani solicited the collaboration of all stakeholders in the fiscal system in view of the positive implications of accurate data, comprehensive records keeping and open data for the taxpayers and the country.
He advocated: “Let us approach these tasks with a shared commitment to building a stronger and more accountable fiscal framework for Nigeria.”
