Governor Atiku Bagudu says his administration does not have enough money to run the state the way he wants, lamenting the dwindling funds made available to Kebbi by the federal government.

“If you want to run a good primary education system, according to the Organisation for European Co-operation and Development (OECD), the minimum amount of money you require is $700 per pupil. So, if you have 100,000 primary pupils, you should spend $700,000 million (sic),” Mr Bagudu explained. “Kebbi state, with about 540,000 pupils in primary schools, needs $400,000 (sic), and my total budget is less than $200 million. So, we, in Kebbi state, are sympathetic to the federal government for its deficit.”

He added, “Hence, we want to highlight the resource challenge and how we can be supported to mobilise our abundant resources for revenue generation, in order to contribute our quota rather than taking money from the federation account.”

Mr Bagudu stated this at the national sensitisation organised by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to review the vertical revenue allocation formula held in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday.

“Before allocation, there are challenges of mobilisation; what do we correctly receive compared to our priorities? Our allocation in the country is under $700 billion in September. Less than $2 billion was shared by the states, local governments and federal government,” the governor noted. “There has not been a month where the equivalent of $2 billion was shared this year; because the $2 billion at official rate is about N800 billion.”

He also stated that most of the distribution has been under N700 billion a month, “meaning that even in the best of circumstances in 2021, (what) the three tiers of government would share (is) less than $24 billion.”

Mr Bagudu added, “The highest money shared was in 2013. Even then, it would not be enough as it was not able to fund our priorities.”

According to Mr Bagudu, Kebbi received N65 billion this year and N70 billion in 2020, less than $200 million to cater to the needs of five million people in the state.

The governor urged the RMAFC to concentrate on resource mobilisation challenges and support a framework that would help the state develop its potential and contribute like oil-producing states.

He charged stakeholders in the state to prioritise support for resource mobilisation in the proposed review of the revenue allocation formula and changes to the nation’s fiscal arrangements between the three tiers of government in the country.

(NAN)