Many states of the federation, which were unable to meet their fiscal obligations due to inability of the Federal Government to disburse three months arrears of the usual monthly allocation, can now heave a sigh of relief, as the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) on Friday approved and disbursed a staggering N1.196trn to the three tiers of government for the months of August and September 2013.

Made after Friday’s meeting of the committee, the approval sheet revealed that the net statutory disbursements to the Federal Government was N484,429,000,000 (52.68 per cent).

The 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) received N245,708,000,000 (26.72 per cent) while the 774 Local Government Areas and the six Area Councils of the FCT received N189,431,000,000 (20.6 per cent).

To make up the N1.19trn windfall for the governments, N127,661,000,000 was distributed between the federal government (N19,149,000,000), states (N63,831,000,000) and local governments (N44,682,000,000) as proceeds of the Value Added Tax (VAT) for the two months.

All tiers of government shared another N35, 549,000,000 from the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) as well as an additional N7, 617,000,000 from the monthly payment by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Minister of State for Finance and Chairman of FAAC Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama explained that the committee’s approval was for the accounts of August and September.

According to him, “the month of September witnessed a drop in the amount of revenue that accrued into the Federation Account by N22.783bn due to the slight decline in crude oil production as a result of Force Majeure declared at Brass Terminal, maintenance issues and theft.”