AGF charges states’ accountants-general to emulate Lagos

ACCOUNTANT General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, has advised states’ Accountants-general to create additional sources of revenue generation in their domains, urging them to understudy Lagos State in that regard.

He gave this advice during the Annual Retreat for Accountants-general in Nigeria in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State at the weekend.

At the forum with the theme, “Efficient And Effective Public Finance Management: Role Of Accountants-general, Idris noted that creating additional sources of revenue would help states to augment the monthly allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

He stressed that presently only Lagos State could pay workers salary monthly without depending on federal allocation.

Idris noted that only a few states in the country were capable of executing expenditure beyond 50 per cent without FAAC, adding that, much of the distributable revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) goes to Lagos State, adding that.

“This has become necessary because most of the VAT attracting businesses in the country are located in Lagos State and states deposits in the Deposit Money Banks (DMBS) are invested in Lagos,” he said.

He added that the Federal Government was concerned about the rate of dwindling revenue generation, saying that the Minister of Finance has put in place initiatives like Revenue Performance Management Framework (RPMF) and Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative ((RGI) to ensure speedy revenue enhancement.

“I emphasis the urgent need for you to create additional sources of revenue generation to augment your monthly allocation from FAAC. You are all aware that besides Lagos, no other state can pay monthly salary to its workers without recourse to FAAC allocation.

“In fact, statistics has shown that only few states in the federation would be able to execute expenditure beyond 50 per cent without FAAC allocation.