BY LINUS CHIBUIKE
THE Federal Government has denied Governor Godwin Obaseki’s claim that it printed N60billion to be able to afford the sharing of March revenue allocation to states, describing the statement as sad.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who cleared the air on the Edo Governor’s statement, which stirred heated controversy across Nigeria, noted that the Federation Account Allocation Committee only distributed generated revenue.
Ahmed, who spoke to State House correspondents, in Abuja on Wednesday, added that the revenue distribution was always made public.
She said this just as she faulted Obaseki’s comments on the Federal Government’s borrowing.
The minister insisted that the nation’s debt profile remained within manageable limit, noting that the plan was basically to improve Nigeria’s revenue generation to take care of both debt servicing and running of government.
Obaseki had said, during the Edo Transition Committee Stakeholders’ Engagement, that the Federal Government had to print N60bn for FAAC to be able to meet revenue sharing to states in March.
Ahmed said, “The issue that has been raised by the Edo State Governor, for me, is very sad because it is not in a fact. What we distribute at FAAC is a revenue that is generated, and in fact, distribution revenue is a public information, we publish it.
“So it is revenue generated by the FIRS, the Customs and the NNPC, that we distribute at FAAC. So it is not true to say we printed money to distribute at FAAC, it is not true.”
Tackling the Governor on the issue of borrowing, she noted, “The Nigerian debt is still within sustainable limits. What we need to do, as I have said several times, is to improve our revenue to enhance our capacity to service, not only our debt obligations, but to service the needs of running government on a day-to-day basis.”
“So our debt, currently at about 23 per cent to Gross Domestic Product, is at a very sustainable level. You can look at all the reports that you see from multilateral institutions, those facts are stated,” the minister said.
