House of Representatives has mandated its relevant committees to look into states’ spending and utilisation of the increased funds from the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to sub-nationals.
This resolution followed the adoption of a motion brought under matters of urgent national importance, sponsored by Hon. Ademorin Kuye (APC, Lagos) at plenary yesterday.
Presenting the motion, Kuye said the amount shared by the federal, states and local governments from FAAC has increased significantly, due to the withdrawal of fuel subsidy, floating of the naira and other economic policies unanimously introduced by the government.
According to him, states and local governments got the most cash from FAAC in at least seven years after the subsidy removal took away its burden on public coffers and a currency reform delivered a 40 per cent boost on naira income.
The lawmaker noted that states and local governments received a total of N6.57 trillion in 2023 which doubled the N3.16 trillion they collected in 2022.
He expressed concern that despite the availability of more cash to the states, 14.2million more citizens continue to grapple with poverty as most of the states with increased allocation face significant challenges in payment of salaries, effective management of public institutions while unemployment rate has increased to over 51 percent in some of them.
“Most worried that state governors have brazenly refused to complement the federal government poverty amelioration efforts and are not driving the necessary economic transformation that will reduce citizen suffering in their respective states with the increased allocation at their disposal,” Kuye added.
