April FAAC to hold by video conferencing

The meeting of the  Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) for April 2020 will hold through video conferencing.

This is due to the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chairman of the Forum Hon. David Olofu made this disclosure when he led a delegation of the Forum to pay a solidarity visit to the Accountant- General of the Federation.

Apart from being the first time the monthly FAAC meeting will hold remotely, another interesting feature of the meeting will be the deliberations on the expected fall in the revenue and amount to be shared by the three arms of government given the fall in the price of crude oil.

April and May 2020 FAAC meetings are projected to have enough money to share but the June 2020 disbursement has already been taken care of with the federal government withdrawing $150 million from the stabilisation fund of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to augment the June allocations.

During the meeting with the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) Mr Idris Ahmed, the Commissioners of Finance said they were impressed “by the efforts of the Accountant-General of the Federation in restoring services on the GIFMIS platform less than 24 hours after the fire outbreak.”

Olofu, who is also the Commissioner for Finance in Benue State, said they were pleased to learn that no document related to federation accounts was destroyed in the fire outbreak.

He commended the Accountant General for the various financial management reforms implemented in the last five years, including the migration of the operations of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) from manual to electronic processing and distribution of Federation Revenue to the three tiers of government.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, in his response commended the delegation for the visit and noted that “the solidarity visit was a clear confirmation of the cordial working relationship that exists between the Forum and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.”

He restated the commitment of his Office to see through the efficient implementation of the various financial reforms of the Federal Government.