Kaduna Calls For A Review Of Revenue Formula

Kaduna State government has called for a review of the revenue allocation formula so as to improve its receipts from the Federation Allocation Accounts Committee (FAAC).

?It said that what it was presently receiving was so meager and that the state government would continue to borrow money to be able to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.

The State Government said, yesterday, that the average N4.6 billion monthly allocation it was getting for its estimated 7.1 million population spread over a landmass bigger than the entire South East zone put together was not sufficient to serve the people.

Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, the state Commissioner for Economic Planning, Mr. Timothy Gandu, observed that though it had the third largest population in the country, the State ranked 10th in revenue allocation.

He said, the state government incurred a monthly wage bill of N2.4 billion as a result of the implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage law and pointed out that before the implementation of the law, it paid N1.3 billion to its total workforce of about 27,000.

?“Kaduna State now has an estimated population of 7.1 million people, going by a national population growth rate of 3.1 percent. That makes us the third State with the largest population.

“Our land area is bigger than all the five states of the South East put together and equals the entire South-South Zone.