The National Economic Council (NEC) has resolved to stop financial abuses by agencies, which collect revenue on behalf of the Federal Government and spend about 90 per cent of it on their expenditure.
The resolution, taken at the NEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, was announced by Gov. Willy Obiano of Anambra State in Abuja on Thursday.
The governor said the finance minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, revealed the continuous perpetration of the abuses by the agencies for the past decade adding that efforts were being made to stop such malpractice.
“The long term revenue abuse by the revenue generating agencies was taken at the council.
“The Finance Minister reported to the council certain activities of some revenue generating agencies that amounted to financial abuse of the revenue they generate.
“They include paying salaries above RAMFAC, which is Revenue Mobilisation Financial Accounts Committee specifications.
“Converting official cars to personal ownership, monetizing medical allowances arbitrarily, unapproved overseas travels, lavish training allowances, excessive personal loan approvals, including unapproved mortgages.
“The Ministry of Finances and RAMFAC are working together to rein in these abuses as these revenue agencies raise as much as N1.5 trillion and spend almost 90 percent of it on their recurrent expenditure.’’
According to Obiano, the minister informed NEC that the sharp practices had gone on for a decade.
He, however, said the minister added that such financial abuses where the agencies hide the revenues that ought to go to the federation account would now be exposed and terminated.
He said the minister also reported to NEC that as at November 2016 the Excess Crude Account stood at $2.4 billion.
He further said Adeosun also reported that $1.1 billion was disbursed in October to 35 states while N6.3 billion had been disbursed to each of the 35 states of the federation.
On ecological fund, he said N2 billion was reported to have been paid to the states by the last administration, but some states complained they did not receive equal share of the fund while others did not get anything at all.
Consequently, NEC said that the reason for the unjust payment would be investigated and reported to the President.
Also contributing, the Bauchi Gov. Mohammed Abubakar told correspondents that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, gave a report on financing opportunities critical to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
According to him, Emefiele underscored the importance of MSMEs in the economy and cited countries whose economies are driven by them.
Abubakar said the CBN chief convinced the council to provide the much needed financing to the development of MSMEs in their various states to revitalise the economy of the country.
“When that is done, the MSMEs have the capacity of improving the micro economic stability of the nation and be able to boost the capacity of the MSMEs in conserving much needed foreign exchange for Nigeria.
“They will encourage exports and then the expansion of agriculture,manufacturing and other service sub sectors in Nigeria.’’
Abubakar added that a similar report was received from the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment through the Director-General of Small and Medium Enterprises Agency of Nigeria(SMEDAN) on the MSMEs and their role in the country’s economy.
He said the ministry informed NEC that the nation had 37,067,416 MSMES, adding that Lagos, Kano and Oyo states had the highest number in that order while Nasarawa state is the lowest.
“The need to encourage the setting up of these MSMEs by all the states of the federation was underscored,’’ he added.
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