Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Wednesday shared a N1,654,556,244.56 revenue allocation from the Federation Account for December 2012.
Chairperson of the FCT Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) and Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide disclosed this during the committee’s meeting in Abuja.
Akinjide, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, FCT, Engr. Anthony Ozodinobi, noted that Value Added Tax accounted for N817.04m of the allocation from the Federation Account, as against the N890.69m received for the month of November.
The minister confirmed that Statutory Allocation of N757.63m and Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) allocation of N56.77m were received from Federation Account for the six Area Councils of Abaji, Abuja Municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.
Of the N1.654bn, the Joint Account Allocation Committee transferred N849.34m to the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) for payment of the primary school teachers’ salaries in the area councils; N95.04m to FCT Area Councils Pension Board (ACPB) being 15 per cent pension fund as statutorily required, and N16.54m to FCT Area Councils Service Commission being one per cent training fund.
The Committee distributed the net revenue allocation of N663.62m to the six Area Councils, with Gwagwalada receiving the lion’s share of N137.52m.
Abuja Municipal Area Council received N137.48m, Bwari Area Council (N120.75m), Abaji Area Council (N103.23m), Kuje Area Council (N99.26m) and Kwali Area Council (N85.17m).
Akinjide further explained that Abuja Municipal got the highest SURE-P allocation of N16.77m, Bwari (N9.28m), Gwagwalada (N8.50m), Kwali (N7.79m), and Abaji (N6.96m).
She disclosed that the biometric audit of all the six Area Councils — aimed at tracking the number of workers in the six area councils of the territory and eliminating ghost workers — is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.
“We have gone through the procurement processes and have engaged a consultant to undertake biometric audit of all workers in the Area Councils,” she said.
“We want to ensure that the workers in the Area Councils are genuine and also make sure that they are qualified for the positions they are holding.”
