FAAC shares N559.032bn for June

• FG Vows to Recover from Recession

Disbursements to the three tiers of government from the federation account appreciated significantly after many months of weak disbursements with the sum of N559.032 billion being shared among the federal, state and local governments for the month of June 2016.

This is the first time the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) is sharing such an amount which the state governments said will allow them to pay salaries and meet other financial obligations.

An elated minister of finance Mrs Kemi Adeosun told journalists at the end of the monthly FAAC meeting in Abuja yesterday that the appreciation in the amount shared for June 2016 came Inspite of the country technically entering recession.

A breakdown of the disbursements showed that from statutory allocation, the federal government received N199.754 billion, state governments N101.318 billion, local governments N78.112 billion and N17.124 billion was given to the oil producing states as 13% mineral revenue derivation.

For Value Added Tax (VAT) the federal government received N9.706 billion, states N32.353 billion and local governments N22.647 billion.

Adeosun attributed the increase in what was shared for June to improved collection performance by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).

The improved performance from the non-oil revenue generating agencies, the minister said “shows that some of the reforms in revenue collection is improving significantly.”

Speaking on the state of the economy, Adeosun reiterated her earlier remarks to the senate that country was technically into recession but assured Nigerians that there was no cause to panic as “the fundamentals remain strong and if we can be disciplined on what we spend money on. If we stick to the reforms, things will improve.”

With regards to the country entering into recession, the finance minister assured the country that “we are going to recover, it is painful but we will come out better.”

Adeosun also disclosed that N247.9 billion has so far been disbursed from the 2016 budget with an additional N60 billion to be disbursed this week. So far in the last two months, N74 billion has been given to the federal ministry of Works, N22.1 billion to transport ministry and N21.9 billion to the ministry of agriculture.

The finance minister disclosed that the government was looking for money to fund the next batch of releases.

On another happy note the finance minister announced that N3.094 billion is now left in the Excess Crude Account the minister an appreciation from the over $2 billion in the account in the past.