FCT Area Councils Share N1.78b Revenue, SURE-P Allocations

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) yesterday shared the sum of N1.786 billion among its six Area Councils being funds received from the Federation Account Allocation Committee and the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).

This is just as the area councils, namely, Abaji, Abuja Municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali are also expected to share $1,597,048.73 from the Excess Crude Proceed Account.

Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, disclosed this during the FCT Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC), meeting.

Akinjide who is also the chairman of the committee disclosed that the sum of N1.576 billion revenue allocation was received from FAAC for the month of July 2012 for the while N170.32 million was received from the Federal Ministry of Finance as the area councils’ share of the SURE-P programme for the period May, June and July 2012.

She added that the area councils also shared N39.904 million being 10 per cent of the FCTA’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for August 2012 bringing the total revenue allocation to N1.616 billion.

“Of the N1.616 billion revenue allocation, the FCTA disbursed N817.41 million to the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) for primary school teachers in the six area councils; N95.04 million to FCT Area Councils Pension Board (ACPB) being 15 per cent pension fund as statutorily required, and N16.16 million to FCT Area Councils Service Commission being one per cent training fund, also statutorily required.

“The balance of the revenue allocation of N687.50 million was disbursed to the Area Councils, with Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) receiving the lion’s share of N135.02 million,” she added.

Akinjide further stated that the sum of N125.75 million was distributed to Gwagwalada Area Council, N123.51 million to Bwari Area Council, N102.86 million to Abaji Area Council, N101.10 million to Kwali Area Council, and N99.23 million to Kuje Area Council.

On the excess crude sharing, she stated that the sum of $1 billion would be shared among the three tiers of government, out of which $1.597 million was for the FCT Area Councils.

“This amount will be paid by the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) in naira at the prevailing exchange rate on the day of payment.

The FCT Area Councils were allocated the sum of $1,597,048.73 and allocated as follows: Abaji ($195,949.51), Abuja Municipal ($471,781.54), Bwari ($261,296.03), Gwagwalada ($239,138.68), Kuje ($209,575.01), and Kwali ($219,307.96,” she explained.

On the SURE-P funds, Akinjide advised the area council chairmen that the money should be put in a dedicated account and utilised for wealth creation and critical infrastructure development in their area councils.