Finance
THE FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, has appealed to the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to work out a specific funding mechanism for infrastructure development in the territory.
The Chief Press Secretary to the minister, Mr Anthony Ogunleye, said in a statement on Wednesday that Bello made the appeal when a delegation from RMAFC paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
The delegation was made of members of the commission’s Indices and Disbursement Committee, led by its Chairman, Dr Chris Akomas.
Bello explained that specific funding for the territory would enable the FCT Administration to meet its infrastructural development objective for the FCT.
The minister stated that Abuja was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world with an annual population growth of between seven percent and nine percent.
He further informed the committee that the FCT currently had an approximate population of six million people as against the 2.5 million envisaged by the Master Plan at its present stage of development.
“So, everything is grossly overstretched and that is why the FCT Administration, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, decided that we continue to emphasize on completing ongoing infrastructural projects in the road, rail and water sectors.”
Bello also informed his guests that the number of infrastructural development projects currently going on in the FCT, funding remains a challenge.
“As the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, it is your national duty to create a special funding mechanism that is not against the constitution that makes sure that these works in progress are done.
“Because as you know, we are considered under section 299 of the Constitution as if we were a state,” Bello said.
Earlier, Akomas said that his team was in the FCTA on an advocacy and sensitization visit to seek the cooperation of the administration to enable it to discharge its duties, one of which was the collation of accurate and reliable data.
He said members of the commission had visited all the states of the Federation, including the Ministries of Education, and Water Resources as well as the National Boundaries Commission, National Population Commission and other government agencies.
“We are visiting all these places because we are talking of data and we are looking forward to data integrity,” he said. (NAN)
Mar. 17, 2021 @ 18:30 GMT
Tags: Infrastructure Development: Minister seeks specific funding mechanism for FCT
