November 21, (THEWILL) – The Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Victor Muruako, says as of December 31, 2021, the six states of the South-South geopolitical zone owe N988.06 billion in domestic debt and $873.3 million in foreign Debt.
The FRC Chairman disclosed this in Calabar, during an awareness and sensitisation programme/workshop on transparency and accountability, which was themed: Sustaining the gains of fiscal transparency and accountability in states.
The FRC boss, who spoke through Zelani Mohammed, added that the region is punching below its capabilities in key areas, highlighted areas that need improvement, and offered to help any state that needs help.
“An analysis of fiscal fundamentals of states of the South-South geopolitical zone, as of December 31, 2021, reveals a total domestic debt of N988.06 billion and total foreign debt of $873.3 million”, he said.
He stated that the states can do more with improvements in IGR, capital expenditure, and fiscal sustainability and offered technical assistance to states needing offered to offer technical assistance to states that need help.
“We can do more by way of IGR, for instance. We can do more by way of capital expenditure. We can improve fiscal sustainability.
“The Commission is glad to work with any State that wants help. As a matter of fact, the Act setting up the Commission mandates us to offer such technical assistance”, he said.
He said the efforts of his commission over the last decade to get states and local governments in the Federation to, at the very least, involve their citizens in the development and monitoring of their respective budgets and implementation thereof have finally yielded fruit through the push of the SFTAS programme.
He added that the commission is happy that most states in the zone have their budgets online and in some cases their audited accounts including local governments online.
He also commended the Cross River State government for publishing its 2021 Audited Financial Statements of all their Local Governments describing it as “almost miraculous”.
He expressed hope that when the incentives attached to SFTAS elapse, Subnational Governments will voluntarily continue in this right way, stressing that fiscal prudence, transparency, accountability and citizen involvement are positively correlated to economic development and political stability.
He appealed to the World Bank and its partners to please ensure they adopt the National Orientation Agency as implementation partners if they truly want the results of SFTAS to be sustained and deepened.
He maintained that the key thing required for sustaining the success at this point is a push from the grassroots, which is the forte of the NOA.
In a goodwill message, Danladi Daniel, the Head of the Extractive Industry Fraud Section in the EFCC said his commission will work with the FRC on the area of common interest to ensure the resources of the country are properly utilised for the good of the citizenry.
About the Author
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
