The Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, has urged stakeholders in the state to prioritise support for resource mobilisation in the proposed review of the revenue allocation formula and changes to the nation’s fiscal arrangements between the three tiers of government in the country.
Bagudu made the plea at the National Sensitisation organised by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on the review of the vertical revenue allocation formula, held in Birnin Kebbi, on Thursday.
“Before allocation, there is challenges of mobilisation; what do we correctly receive compared to our priorities?
“Our allocation in the country is under 700 billion Naira in September, less than $2 billion US dollars was shared by the states, local governments and federal government.
“There has not been a month where the equivalent of $2 billion US dollars was shared this year; because the $2 billion US dollars at official rate is about N800 billion.
“Most of the distribution has been under N700 billion a month, meaning that even in the best of circumstances in 2021, the three tiers of government would share less than $24 billion US dollars.
“The highest money shared was in 2013. Even then, it would not be enough as it was not able to fund our priorities”, Bagudu said.
According to him, the state had so far received N65 billion this year, and N70 billion in 2020, which is less than $200 million US dollars, and yet the amount was meant to cater for the needs of five million people in the state.
“If you want to run a good primary education system, according to the Organization for European Co-operation and Development (OECD), the minimum amount of money you require is $700 US dollars per pupil.
” So, if you have 100,000 primary pupils, you should spend $700,000 million US dollars.
“Kebbi state, with about 540,000 pupils in primary schools, needs $400,000 US dollars, and my total budget is less than $200 million US dollars.
” So, we, in Kebbi state, are sympathetic to the Federal Government for its deficit, hence we want to highlight the resource challenge and how we can be supported to mobilise our abundant resources for revenue generation, in order to contribute our quota rather than taking money from the federation account, ” he said.
The governor urged the RMAFC to concentrate on challenges of resource mobilisation and support a framework that would help the state to develop its potential, to contribute like oil producing states.
Earlier, the Federal Commissioner, RMAFC, Alhaji Rilwanu Hassan, said the objective of the sensitisation was to enlighten all major stakeholders on the need to participate and make relevant contributions to the review #.
“The aim also is to assist the commission come up with a just, fair, equitable and acceptable revenue allocation formula for the country.
“The 1999 Constitution (as amended) empowers the Commission to regularly review the revenue allocation formula,” he said.
Given the changing socio-economic and political dynamics of the nation, the commission was, therefore, engaging stakeholders to fashion out a new sharing formula, based on the collective aspirations of the people for sustainable development.
“We are here to enlist the interests of stakeholders, to get informed inputs, for the revenue sharing template,” he also said, citing several socio-economic and political changes which took place since the last review as informing the commission’s decision for the current review.
The commission would take serious consideration of all views and recommendations that would emanate from the public hearing, the commissioner added.
In his remarks, the state Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Ibrahim Augie, thanked the commission for organising the sensitisation workshop.
