Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, says though the monthly federal allocation disbursed to state governments has risen, the purchasing power and the real value of the money allocated has “decreased significantly” due to the inflationary pressure on the economy and the wobbling naira.
“It is true that in terms of amount, it has actually increased but in terms of purchasing power, in terms of real value, it has decreased very significantly,” Muftwang said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.
On Sunday, during a broadcast on the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests, President Bola Tinubu said some of his reforms like petrol subsidy removal and the floating of the naira have “led to our State, and Local Governments receiving the highest allocations ever in our country’s history from the Federation Account.”
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Asked to mention the monthly allocation to his state, the governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain said he “can’t give an exact figure” because what has come in so far monthly has fluctuated.
The governor said the prices of diesel, cement, iron rods and other materials used for the construction of critical infrastructure have increased. “So, we shouldn’t just look at the amount, let’s look at the purchasing power of the amount that the state has so far received from the federation account,” he said.
Mutfwang said, “It doesn’t need any rocket science. When the last administration came in in 2015, the dollar exchanged to about N180 to the naira. Today, you are telling me that money has increased but all of us know the value of the naira to the dollar.
“And we are still a consumer nation, many of the things we are using in governance are imported and so they are dollar-denominated.”
At the moment, the Federal Government gets a total of 52.68%, states get 26.72% while LGs get 20.60% of the country’s monthly revenue allocated by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) which operates under the Presidency, and disbursed by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
