The Kogi Government said on Tuesday that it received N13.11 billion from the federation account between January and June.
The State’s Commissioner for Finance, Mr Idris Ashiru, disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting held in Lokoja Monday evening.
Ashiru said that the amount was N9 billion less that the N22.85billion that accrued to the state in the same period in 2015.
He said that the sharp drop in revenue had constituted a major barrier to the implementation of programmes, policies and payment of workers’ salary.
According to him, while the allocations to the state in May and June stood at N 2.01 billion and N 1.8 billion respectively, the workers monthly wage bill remains at N2.77 billion.
He, however, said that government was able to release running costs to ministries, agencies and departments up till May.
The commissioner said that workers in 45 MDAs had been paid between three months and four months salaries, since the inception of the present administration in January.
In his opening remarks, Gov. Yahaya Bello appealed to lecturers of the Kogi State University, who had been on strike for almost two months, to call off the strike in the interest of the students.
He said that he had met 80 per cent of their demands and wondered why the lecturers had remained adamant.
Present at the meeting were politicians, youths, bankers, lawyers, members of academic community, security agencies, state legislators, religious leaders, civil society groups, women groups and traditional rulers. (NAN)