Caleb Mutfwang, Plateau State governor, says that although monthly federal allocation disbursed to state governments had increased, 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.
Muftwang was responding to claims by President Bola Tinubu, in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday, amid ongoing protest against hunger in the country, that money saved from removal of fuel subsidy was used to mark up monthly from the federation account to states to enable them address the hardship Nigerians were currently facing.
“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,” the governor said on Channels TV Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.
Asked to mention the monthly allocation to his state, the governor said he couldn't give an exact figure because what has come in so far monthly has fluctuated.
While noting that the prices of diesel, cement, iron rods and other materials used for the construction of critical infrastructure had increased, Governor Muftwang said: “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.
“It doesn’t need any rocket science. When the last administration came 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.
“We are still a consumer nation; many of the things we are using in governance are imported and so they are dollar-denominated.”
Currently, 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.
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