Electronic collection of data from states, LGCs ready by March — RMAFC
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), says the electronic collection of data from states and local governments will be finalised in March.
The Chairman, RMAFC, Mr Muhammed Shehu said this on the sideline of an event on Monday in Abuja.
The event was a “Tooling Programme” to enlighten officials of the states and Local Government Councils (LGCs) on data generation and management.
It was organised by the commission in collaboration with the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the 774 LGCs of the Federation.
“The Commission has already done the vertical allocation formular, which is the sharing of revenue from the Federation into states, local governments, Federal Government, and the FCT.”
The Chairman also said the Commission had submitted its report in April 2022 to President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said Buhari was awaiting the outcome of a new Revenue Allocation Formula constitutional amendment, as was initiated by the National Assembly.
“After reviewing, he (Buhari) will forward it to the National Assembly for enactment. This exercise is about collection and management of data from the states.”
The Chairman further spoke on revenue allocation formular.
“Revenue allocation formular are categorised into vertical and horizontal. The vertical is sharing among the three tiers of government while horizontal is sharing revenue among states and local governments.
“There has to be some data and setting indices that we collect and analyse before it forms part of the entire revenue allocation formular. So while the other one will be transmitted to the National Assembly, we are awaiting that outcome.”
He further said the Commission would collect the data which would be analysed every year.
“As the data comes in we analyse and adjust where necessary. We are going to finalise this by the end of March.
“The training will take place within the next two weeks and the call for the data to states will take at least a period of three months to upload.”
Also, speaking, Sen. Olubunmi Adetunmbi, Chairman, Senate Committee on National Planning and Economic Affairs, congratulated the Commission for its transformation to a digitised approach.
“We like to congratulate this Commission’s leadership from all the states of the Federation on the transformation of data generation and management from local governments.
“We are moving from the traditional methods into a more digitised approach that allows for openness, transparency, compliance and performance.
“Every delegate from the states should go back home and report to their authorities, commissioners to their governors to remind them that the commission is an institution of the Federation not of the Federal Government alone,.
“And the federation is made up of the Federal Government, the state government and the local government.
“State governments should not abandon the revenue commission. Local governments should not abandon the revenue commission. If they do, other smarter stakeholders will take it over as we are currently seeing.
“It is in your self interest that you help this commission succeed in the task so that more revenue will come to the centre and there will be enough for the benefit of all Nigerians.”
Meanwhile, Mr Chris Akomas, the Chairman, Indices and Disbursement Committees said the training would enable the Commission to migrate efficiently and effectively from the manual to digitalisation platform.
Akomas said this would be done through the electronic method and the collection of the required information.
“Therefore, this training programme is to ensure that the Commission and the sub-nationals of our stakeholders will be on the same page as it concerns data integrity.
“We are very optimistic that the programme will avail the participants the opportunity to get well acquainted with the processes of data gathering and managing.
“That will pass the credibility and integrity for future occurrences of states and local government councils that may not be implemented by the commission.
“It is our hope and belief that at the end of this training programme, participants will go back to their respective domains with full knowledge of how they would prepare their data.
“As well as key into the newly introduced electronic portal which will be the main focus in the course of this programme.”
He also said the participants and delegates would become the database establishment committees of their respective states and local government councils.
According to him, they are expected to transform into database management committees after the establishment of a database for their states and local government councils respectively.
“This is very important to ensure sustainability and build on the established database for future successes.”
