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From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Amidst strong agitations for higher revenue allocation for states and local governments, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), yesterday, assured the agitators that it has carried out a review of Vertical Allocation Formula and submitted to the president.
Speaking at a programme to enlighten state and local government officials on data management and electronic data collection, in Abuja, the chairman of RMAFC, Mohammed Bello Shehu disclosed that the commission has equally commenced the process of reviewing the horizontal revenue allocation formula.
The horizontal revenue allocation formula is the sharing of federation account revenue among states and local governments in line with the principles, factors and proxies stated in the constitution. Also, the vertical allocation formula denotes the sharing arrangement among states and local governments including Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Considering the above, the commission deems it necessary to organise a programme to enlighten the officials of states and local governments on the electronic platform for data collection for the review of the current indices used in the horizontal allocation formula” he said.
Shehu noted that the 1999 constitution empowers the commission to review, from time to time, the revenue allocation formulae and principles in operation to ensure conformity with changing realities, provided that any formula which has been accepted by an Act of the National Assembly shall remain in force for a period of not less than five years from the date of commencement of the Act.
In his remarks, the Federal Commissioner and Chairman, Indices and Disbursement Committee of RMAFC, Dr Chris Akomas, explained that the sensitisation workshop is geared towards the review of the indices used for the horizontal sharing of revenue based on the formula template which has to do with the review of the proxies, factors and assigned weights.
Earlier, the Benue State Commissioner of Finance, Honourable David Olufu had pushed for more allocations for states, because, according to him, majority of the projects reside in the sub-nationals.
“The federal government should get less allocation than the states because the sub-nationals have a lot to do” he said.
Similarly, the President of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Honourable Kolade David Alabi, noted that the RMAFC should save the local governments from extinction. He said that more funds should be allocated to the local governments.
“For fairness, local governments should be represented in Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC)” he said.
