By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The sum of N680.7 billion has been shared among the federal government, the 36 state governments and the 774 local government areas of the federation.
The money was shared by the three tiers of government after the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting held in Abuja on Thursday, April 22, 2021.
It was the first to be held after the Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, alleged that the federal government printed N60 billion to augment the allocation shared in March 2021.
According to a report by The Nation, the states and local governments had wanted the federal government to share the over N800 billion generated in March yesterday, but the national government insisted that only N680.7 billion would be disbursed to allow the country to save for the raining days.
This led to a collapse in talks and the other levels of government maintained all must be shared to allow them to pay salaries and attend to other pressing demands.
The average amount normally shared is N650 billion and where there is a shortfall, funds are taken from strategy accounts to augment it.
But yesterday, when the state and local government officials learned that more than N800 billion was generated, they requested for all to the shared, but the federal government stood its ground. It eventually released an additional N30 billion to the N650 billion.
“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.
“But after several hours of consultations a compromise was reached and the federal government released an additional N30 billion to the already agreed N650 billion,” The Nation quoted a source as saying.
