Lawmakers, state commissioners and other critical stakeholders have expressed concern over dwindling allocation to states from the Federation Account.
The stakeholders spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) at the end of a three day workshop on Sunday.
The workshop, which was organised by the United States Agency for International Development(USAID) through its State2State Project for six focal states, focused on exploring robust Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) strategies.
The Commissioner, Budget and Planning, Sokoto State, Mai Nasara Ahmed, called on states to work towards boosting their internal revenue, saying there might not be much money to share at the federal level in future.
He stressed that without adequate revenue, providing basic social services like basic education, primary healthcare and Sanitation Water and Hygiene (WASH) would become a daunting task for most states.
“The essence of the workshop is to expand the frontiers of IGR of the various states that are stakeholders under the USAID State2State project.
“As we all know, the Federal, states and local governments are grappling with the issue of revenue generation.
“This is to the extent that a number of projected projects in the budget are rarely met because of liquidity.
“The Federation Account which we all rely on, is to a large extent not feasible because of the current restructuring in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC).
The commissioner commended USAID for collaborating with states to help them develop better finance management systems, including IGR strategies.
According to him, the workshop among other engagements will go a long way in widening the horizon of states’ revenue base so that they could carry out responsibilities emanating from capital and recurrent expenditure.
Ahmed noted that mindful of the turn of events, Sokoto State over the years made diversification of revenue source a priority.
In a separate interview, Member, Sokoto State House of Assembly, Malami Mohammed, said the workshop was a wakeup call for states to do the needful to meet up with their needs.
Mohammed, who is the Chairman Committee on Finance and Appropriation, noted that states were facing numerous challenges in terms of IGR.
He said one of the major challenges was lack of awareness on the importance of revenue to state development.
He stressed that some people did not pay tax because they believed it was a form of extortion, saying such people needed to be educated on the impact IGR could make in the overall development of states.
He further said that it was important for states to source for IGR from other area’s u other than oil, adding that the demand for oil was drastically reducing in the international market.
In another interview, Comfort Omaka, Head of Department, Revenue Collection, Ebonyi State Internal Revenue Service, the discussions from the workshop would be developed into a document that states could make reference to when developing IGR related polices.
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the State2State project is a five year project meant to run from 2020 to 2025.
It is designed to enable states in Nigeria, run accountable financial systems that would provide quality service in basic education, primary healthcare and other priority sectors. (NAN
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