The Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee (FAAC) after a heated meeting finally shared N518.389 billion to the three tiers of Government.
The Federal Government gets 273.49 billion, the States will take 138.72 billion, while the Local Governments will have N106.946 billion.
The Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Yerima Ngama, who was absent in the meeting held at Abuja, caused a lot of angry comments among the Finance Commissioners who accused him of breaching the FAAC act of 1992.
“The consistent absence of the Minister to FAAC meeting is not only a disrespect to the entire State Commissioners, he has also not accorded enough respect to our Governors who sent us.” Said Mr. Timothy Odah, the Chairman of Commissioners Forum.
Speaking on the March allocation, the Minister said, “This exceeds the budget for the month of January which was N465.057 by N53.33billion. It also exceeds the amount realised for the month of February by N31.718 billion.
“This is in addition to the oil producing states going home with 13 percent derivation money of N60.457 billion. The Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) money of N35.549 billion was also shared to the States and Federal Capital Territory.
“The Nigeria National Petroleum (NNPC) continues the payment of its indebtedness to the States and Local Government even as it paid N7.617 billion to the Federation account.
Furthermore, Ngama disclosed that the Excess Crude Account (ECA), despite consistent warning by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been further depleted to $7 billion. The Federal Government early this month, approved the sharing of $2 billion from the ECA to augment the FAAC account.