Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government have been to raise their revenue generation to supplement the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) to meet the projected revenue for better implementation of the 2024 budget.
The Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Rep. Sa’idu Musa Abdullahi threw the challenge during a budget defence session with the National Defence College (NDC).
Rep. Abdullahi urged the institution to explore available windows open to it to generate revenue for the CRF by charging appropriate fees for military officers and others that patronize the college from outside Nigeria.
He emphasized that MDAs should focus on earning Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in line with the present realities of dwindling government revenue needed to fund their budgets.
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He however cautioned that while making money is important, MDAs should not jeopardize standards or their core mandates.
He said, “The bottom line of MDAs earning Internally Generated Revenue IGR is in line with the present realities of dwindling government revenue needed to fund her budget.
“Emphasis on this is not just making money, but inculcating judicious expenditure of the percentage the law permits you to spend off your IGR, depending on whether your Department is fully funded by government or not”
He told the NDC that, top military brass from West African countries, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Germany and the Philippines have slots for regular training at the elite training institution.
The lawmaker noted that if Nigerian military officers who go on training outside the country are charged fees, nothing stops the Defence College from applying the same to trainees from outside Nigeria.
In the same vein, the Finance Committee Deputy Chairman while presiding over a session with the National Universities Commission (NUC) directed the Commission to reconcile their mandate account with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and pay into CRF what he referred to as established financial infractions over the past three years.
The Deputy Executive Secretary NUC had told the committee that its only source of IGR was from the payment of rents on its properties, which it remits 25% to the CRF.
However, Rep. Abdullahi noted an error in NUC’s decision to remit only 25% of its IGR into government coffers instead of 100% as contained in the latest circular.
He said, that as a fully funded agency of government, Abdullahi stated that 100% of any IGR by NUC must be paid into CRF.
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