Federal Allocation: Ogun receives N3.60b in September

By Peter Adedoyin

Governor Dapo Abiodun

The 20 local governments in Ogun State received a total sum of N3,609,082,238.90, which include shares of statutory allocation, Value Added Tax (VAT) and Exchange Gain from the Federal Allocation for the month of September, 2022.

The State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Ganiyu Hamzat, disclosed this at the September, 2022 edition of the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting held at the Conference Hall, Oba’s Complex, Oke-Mosan Abeokuta.

Hamzat said the sharp drop in the month’s allocation would not affect the statutory payments of the councils, imploring Council Chairmen to intensify efforts at increasing their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in their respective local government areas to ameliorate any shortfall that may arise from the federal allocation, in order to provide more democratic dividends at the grassroots. 

The State Commissioner for Finance and Chief Economic Adviser, Dapo Okubadejo represented by the Permanent Secretary and Accountant-General of the State Treasury, Mr. Babatunde Aregbesola, while presenting the financial breakdown of the allocation received,said, the 20 local government areas received a total sum of N3,609,082,238.90, explaining that sum of N693,357,333.45 would be required to meet up for the full payments of  first-line charges, which include; primary school teachers’ salary, local government staff salary, pensions, traditional councils and other charges, which amounted to  N4,302,439,574.36.

He noted that in the month of August, the local governments allocation was N4,685,649,984.81, which he said, was enough to meet up with the first-line charges of N4,302,439,574.81, adding that in the month under review, there was a shortage of over N1Billion, which according to him, the state government would have to come to the aid of the councils.

In his remarks, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Kolawole Fagbohun, said Council Chairmen could also enhance the performance of their local governments by strengthening their legislative chambers, as most of the changes they wanted could only be made through effective legislation when enabling laws are made to guide their activities.