FAAC: Federal, states, LGs to share N548.39b for September

The Federal Government has made available N548.39 billion as the statutory revenue for the three tiers of government for September.
This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday and signed by the Deputy Director, in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Charles Nwodo.
The statement said the amount was an improvement over the figure of N497.98 billion shared in August.
It said the Federal Government also pledged the payment of the outstanding N75 billion shortfalls owed the federation by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.
Responding to the walkout by the commissioners for finance over an outstanding N75 billion expected from the NNPC, the statement said that efforts were being made to resolve the issues.
“The OAGF said FAAC has received assurances from NNPC that the issue is being handled and that a positive outcome is expected soon,” it said.
The statement said the government was exploring all avenues to end the shortfalls in revenue caused by oil theft and vandalism of pipelines as soon as possible.
State commissioners for Finance staged a walk out on the Accountant General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla, over the unresolved differences in revenue sharing.
Timothy Odah, the Chairman of the State Commissioners for Finance Forum, told newsmen that they decided to walkout because they could not come to any agreement with the representative of the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama.
Ngama, who is the chairman of FAAC, was represented at Monday’s meeting of FAAC by Otunla.
Odah said in a statement issued later that members of the forum would not pass the August FAAC account until “the outstanding N336 billion accrued and arrears of augumentation and FAAC budget benchmark differentials are cleared”.
The statement also said that the members would not attend any subsequent meeting “until and unless their Excellencies, our state governors meet and resolve either for or against this stand”.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Minister of State for Finance, Mohammed Nakorji, could not be reached to react on behalf of the minister, who is said to be away in Egypt on an official assignment.