The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in the last two years recommended approval and disbursement of over N10 billion from the stabilization fund account of the Federal government to various states across the country.
According to a statement signed by Nwachukwu Christian, public relations officer (PRO), RMAFC on Thursday, Mohammed Bello, chairman, RMAFC disclosed this in Abuja recently where he clarified that these recommendations from the Commission are always in local currency of naira.
Bello said that the recommendation was given in line with the provision of section 5(7) of cap A15 LFN 2004 under which the stabilization fund was established and empowers the Commission to work out an acceptable threshold from the stabilization account.
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He noted that Cross River State as a beneficiary has been having a five years renewable recommendation for monthly payment of N500 million from the stabilization account since 2008.
“This was part of Federal government’s effort to settle and stabilize the displaced Nigerians who relocated from Bakassi Peninsula to the state after Nigeria’s ceding of the Peninsular to the government of Cameroon in 2008,” it read.
The statement also said that the revenue decline of cross River State from the offshore oil wells that were hitherto attributed to the state which seized to be good source of revenue to it after the ICJ judgment while Akwa Ibom state government became a beneficiary of those oil wells.
Bello further said that the act that established the fund was specifically for any state of the Federation that suffers absolute decline in its revenue arising from factors outside its control, stating that the stabilization fund shall in such case be used to initially augment the allocation to that state in accordance with acceptable threshold to be worked out by RMAFC.
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