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The Federation Ac-counts Allocation Committee , FAAC, met in Abuja, yesterday and shared the sum of N563.089 billion among the three tiers of government from a gross revenue of N626.178 billion that accrued to the federation coffers in the month of April.
Following the successful FAAC meeting, the accounts of all states and local governments will be credited on Monday to enable them meet their financial obligations, especially the payment of workers’ salaries on schedule, according to the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, who presided over the meeting.
A breakdown of the shared figure showed that N441.167 came from Statutory Federation Accounts, N57.291 billion from Value Added Tax, VAT; N21.465 billion for augmentation from the Excess Crude Account; N35.549 billion from the Subsidy Re-Investment Programme, SURE-P; and N7.617 billion represented a refund by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to the FAAC.
The federal government received N207.547 billion, representing 52.68 per cent; states got N105.271 billion, representing 26.72 per cent ; while LGs were given N81.159 billion, representing 20.60 per cent. The nine oil producing states were given an additional N47.189 billion as 13 per cent derivation. The high level of oil theft in the Niger Delta had a negative effect on oil revenue in the month as gross revenue of N626.178 billion received for the month was lower than the N726.726 billion received in the previous month by N100.594 billion.
With the launch o the SURE-P, the federal government has directed all tiers of government to open special accounts for the SURE-P projects, in order to create an environment for a transparent utilization of its funds.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, Dr. Yerima Ngama said the directive became necessary following the “disaggregation of the SURE programme funds into the accounts of the three tiers of government.”
He added that all tiers of government comprising of are to tie the SURE disbursements to special projects to be chosen by the individual governments.
In order to ensure openness in running such accounts, Dr. Ngama said that reports of the disbursements and the projects the funds are used for will be considered by FAAC and the Nigerian public who will also monitor such funds utilization.
In line with the principle of transparency with which the federal government pledged to pursue the SURE-P, its funds were paid separately to the states and local governments.
