April FAAC: Fed Govt forces states to accept N680b

By NDUKA CHIEJINA, Abuja

After hours of resistance, the Federal Government on Thursday forced states and local governments to share N680.687 billion as allocation for this month.

The much-awaited April 2020 Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting which kicked off before noon with the technical session, was still ongoing as of press time last night.

A source told The Nation that at 5 pm that the plenary session collapsed when the state governments demanded to share the entire revenue generated for the month.

But the Federal Government rejected the request and insisted that it must save some money.

There exists a gentleman’s agreement between the three tiers of government that not less than N650 billion should be shared every month after the FAAC meeting.

Where there is a shortfall in revenue, the Federal Government is obligated to withdraw from strategy accounts to augment what is to be shared for the month.

The shortfall in March threw up controversy following Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki’s claim that N60 billion was printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to augment allocations.

Thursday, a drama ensued when the federation account recorded revenue of over N800 billion.

The state governments went up in arms when the Federal Government team announced that a portion of the money would be saved.

The source: “The Federal Government was obliged to honour the gentleman’s agreement of sharing N650 billion for the month. But the economic realities of today have forced it to save whatever it can to mitigate economic volatilities.

“The Federal Government, the source said, “stood its ground and after several hours of consultations between governors and their commissioners of finance on the one hand and a resolute Federal Government on the other.

“A compromise was reached and the Federal Government released an additional N30 billion to the already agreed N650 billion.” (The Nation)