Caption: From right, Chairman of Finance Commissioners’ Forum and Adamawa State Commissioner of Finance, Alhaji Mahmoud Yenusa; Finance Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, and Director of Funds in the Office of Accountant General of the Federation, Mohammed K. Usman, during the FAAC allocation meeting on Wednesday, March 28, 2018.

There was renewed hope for salary payment of government workers just before the Easter break on Wednesday as the three tiers of government shared the sum of N647.39bn at the rescheduled meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in Abuja.
The decision to reschedule the meeting for Wednesday, followed protests by state finance commissioners who disputed the revenue paid into the federation account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
A statement by Adeosun after the deadlock had assured that a meeting has been arranged with the NNPC management led by its Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, to reconcile the revenue figure that fell N37bn short of expectation.
To ensure that workers receive their salary before the break, the Accountant General of Federation also on Wednesday signed the mandates for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay the approved revenue allocation into the accounts of the various accounts.
A breakdown of the revenue showed that the Federal Government received N257.927bn of the net statutory revenue from the N249.366bn received in the previous month, while the State and Local Governments’ got N130.824bn and N100.86bn respectively.
In January, the States and LGs received N126.482bn and N97.512bn, respectively, just as N57.356bn, represented the 13% derivation.
In addition, the 36 States received Value Added Tax of N42.935bn, compared with N46.39bn received in the previous month, while the Federal and Local Governments shared VAT of N12.88bn and N30.054bn, respectively.
Both Federal and Local Governments had received N13.917bn and N32.473bn, respectively, from VAT in February 2018.
The amount, being revenue collected for the month of February 2018 was approved by the committee chaired by the Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and attended by Finance Commissioners of the 36 states and Accountant-Generals, and representatives of revenue generating agencies.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, Adeosun said the N647.39bn was N11.836bn higher than the N635.554bn shared in the previous month, adding that statutory revenue accounted for N557.943bn of the total revenue distributed on Wednesday, while Value Added Tax accounted for the balance of N89.447bn.
The total revenue distribution in the previous month comprised of statutory revenue of N538.908bn and Value.

On Meeting With NNPC
Commenting on the disagreement with the NNPC payment, Adeosun in a statement by Oluyinka Akintunde, Special Adviser, Media & Publicity to the Minister, quoted Adeosun as saying the corporation “is a major channel of our mineral revenue. Some issues have been raised by the States on the revenue paid into the Federation Account by NNPC.
“These are being looked into and within the next 48 hours, we will be a joint meeting with the NNPC Group Managing Director to address the concerns of the States. The reconciliation of the revenue figures is part of a healthy process to ensure transparency and accountability,” she said.
The Chairman of Finance Commissioners’ Forum, Mahmoud Yenusa, explained that the reconvening of the meeting became necessary to enable States pay workers their salaries before the Easter break.
“The account submitted by the NNPC is not acceptable to the States but we are willing to jointly reconcile the revenue figure with the leadership of NNPC.
“We agreed last night to reconvene the meeting for the benefits of Nigerian workers at all tiers of government, to enable them receive their salaries,” the Adamawa State Commissioner of Finance said.
Others at the meeting included representative of the Permanent Secretary and Director of Home Finance in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Olubunmi Siyanbola; Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris; Chairman of Finance Commissioners’ Forum and Adamawa State Commissioner for Finance, Mahmoud Yenusa.