Browsing: Economy

“Though the previous months were characterised by a lot of challenges that militated against the smooth collection of revenue in the command, it is heartwarming to note that efforts put in place to address the challenges yielded the expected result far above the preceding months.”

Recession: Adamawa to introduce Pay-Direct revenue mobilization
Tom Garba
The Adamawa State Government has concluded plans to introduce Pay-Direct system of revenue mobilization and ensure prompt remittance of Pay-As-You Earn by federal ministries and parastatals present in the state.
Yunusa Mahmud, the Adamawa State Commissioner for Finance, made this disclosure while speaking to newsmen over the weekend.
Mahmud maintained that the effort is geared towards boosting the revenue drive and block leakages in the system.
According to him, if the new policy is properly implemented, the state government will within two years be able to pay salaries and running costs of its workforce and channel federal allocation to capital projects in the state.
Mahmud said Mubi town, which is the commercial nerve center of the state, generated less than N2 million in the last one year.
He, however, expressed hope that when the new system is implemented, revenue from Mubi will rise to N10 million monthly.
Mahmud added: “During past administration, the state used to get excess crude allocation up to N10 billion from the Federal Government, but what we are getting now is less than N2 billion.
“What we are doing to mitigate these challenges is to ensure all federal ministries and parastatals present in the state remit their Pay As You Earn as at when due to the coffers of the state government.
“We are doing our best to see what is due for government, gets to the government.”

N26m registration scam: Students finger First Bank
The Students Representative Council of the Federal College of Education, Zaria, Kaduna State has accused the First Bank of Nigeria, Zaria main branch of involvement in the alleged diversion of N26 million students’ registration fees.
The bank has however dismissed the allegation as spurious, saying that it had no case to answer.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that a total of 1,128 students of the college were affected by the disappearance of their registration fees.
Nathan Zakka, the Chairman of the students’ council, described the development as “disheartening” and appealed for thorough investigation to trace the missing money.
Zakka pleaded for patience and cooperation from the students as the union was liaising with relevant authorities to ensure the recovery of the registration fees from the bank.
He said: “We have briefed the National Association of Nigerian Students, Abuja and they are equally making arrangement to address the matter.
“We have also arranged with the college management through Bursary Department to help us verify all payments made through First Bank.
“This is because they are the operator of TSA who only have access to the Remita code for verification and as soon as the exercise is done, we will ensure that your money is recovered.”
According to Zakka, the affected students paid their money through the bank and possess duly certified stamped tellers and numbers.
Babatunde Lasaki, the Head of Corporate Affairs, First Bank, however, debunked the allegation in a telephone interview with NAN, blaming the affected students for their misfortune.
Lasaki said: “From the initial report sent to us after an investigation, it actually shows that there are thousands of students who paid their registration fees in the branch.”
Lasaki explained that it was when the students went to the college for validation that the problem was detected.
He said: “It was in the process of this validation they got to know that some of the students did not duly register.
“These affected students did not pay their money in the bank.
“They actually paid their money in cyber cafes, not in our branch.
“We understand that some of these cyber cafés encourage students to come and do all the registration with them instead of going to the bank.
“So in this situation, the bank has no case with the affected students.”
Lasaki added that the case had been reported to the police and expressed the hope that the matter would be thoroughly investigated to ensure justice to both parties.
On its part, the Kaduna State Police Command through its spokesperson, ASP Aliyu Usman, confirmed receipt of the case, promising that investigation into the matter was on.
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She said: “We have applied for is budget support facility from the World Bank and with the AfDB. AfDB is at the advanced stage and for the World Bank, we have submitted a letter of development policy. Hopefully we are going into negotiation as next steps here. ‎We are therefore on course with raising the concessionary financing we wanted

In a statement by its spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Senate said the decision to withdraw the case and its subsequent dismissal as well as the discharge of the defendants has confirmed its earlier position that the case was indeed an abuse of court process, having been dismissed earlier by the court