TEN days after the arrest of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, for an alleged N80 billion scam, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has shared a total of N636.6bn April 2022 revenue to the federal government, states and local government councils.
This was contained in a communiqué issued yeserday at the end of a virtual meeting of FAAC for May 2022.
The ICIR had reported that the meeting, which was scheduled for last week, was postponed after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Idris for the alleged N80bn scam.
The arrest and suspension of Idris had forced the federal government, through the ministry of finance, budget and national planning, to postpone the May 2022 FAAC meeting last Wednesday, in a circular signed by the Director, Home Finance, Stephen Okon.
The committee, headed by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, is made up of commissioners for finance from the 36 states of the federation; the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris; and representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Others are representatives of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigeria Custom Service, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
The Federation Account is currently being managed on a legal framework that allows funds to be shared under three major components of statutory allocation, value added tax (VAT) distribution and allocation made under the derivation principle.
Under statutory allocation, the Federal Government gets 52.68 per cent of the revenue shared; states, 26.72 per cent; and local governments, 20.60 per cent.
The framework also provides that VAT revenue be shared thus: Federal Government, 15 per cent; states, 50 per cent; and local governments, 35 per cent.
Similarly, extra allocation is given to the nine oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation formula.
The N656.602bn shared yesterday comprised distributable statutory revenue of N461.189bn, distributable VAT revenue of N166.52bn, and N8.891bn, being recovered excess bank charges.
The total deduction for cost of collection was put at N29.6bn, and total deductions for transfers and refunds was N147.65bn.
The balance in the Excess Crude Account was $35.377m.
The communiqué confirmed that from the total distributable revenue of N656.602bn, the federal government received N257.611bn, state governments received N201.256bn and local government councils received N149.251bn.
The sum of N48.485bn was shared to the relevant states as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
A gross statutory revenue of N635.037bn was received for the month of April 2022. This was lower than the N933.304bn received in the previous month by N298.267bn.
From the N461.189bn distributable statutory revenue, the Federal Government received N217.412bn, the state governments received N110.275bn and the local government vouncils received N85.017bn. The sum of N48.485bn was shared to the relevant states as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.