Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria, has called the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, (RMAFC) to review the revenue sharing formula.
Gatekeepers News reports that Sanwo-Olu made this call at the 2023 Budget Estimates Presentation to the Lagos State House of Assembly in the Alausa area of Ikeja, the state capital.
Sanwo-Olu advocated for the revenue sharing formula to be 34 per cent for Federal Government including one per cent for FCT – Abuja, 42 per cent for State Governments, 23 per cent for Local Governments and one per cent for Lagos State (special status).
Currently, the Federal Government gets 52.68 per cent, states get 26.72 per cent while local governments get 20.60 per cent.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Lagos, with over 20 million people, collected the highest Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) of N753.46 billion in 2021 followed by the FCT which collected N131.92 billion.
The Lagos State Governor further urged the Federal Government to grant special economic status to Lagos.
Sanwo-Olu, who described the state as a “national asset”, said the benefits of Lagos transcend a region of the country as all Nigerians enjoy the state’s prosperity in one way or the other.
He presented the Budget Estimates of N1,692,670,759,894 with Recurrent as N759,958,569,792 (45%) and Capital being N932,712,190,102 (55%).
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that he tagged it ‘Budget of Continuity’, adding that its effective implementation will be for the benefit of all.
Sanwo-Olu said, “Lagos continues to experience increased pressure on social services due to unhindered migration from other parts of the country.
“It is for this reason that I always sought and I will still continue to reiterate the need for Lagos to be accorded a special status as a national asset.
“Lagos is too big for this country to allow it to fail. Lagos is too strategic for us not to see it that the wholesome of Lagos is the wholesome of this country, that the benefits of Lagos transcend one region, one part, or one scope of this country.
“As a microcosm of the entire country, Lagos deserves all the support it can get at the national level.”
The Governor spoke further, “The development of any megacity like ours is the responsibility of both the public and private sectors, and to this end, we will continue to explore public-private-partnership strategies in the provision of infrastructure, social services, and the conversion of challenges to opportunities within the context of scarce resources.
“I am indeed very grateful to the members of the organized private sector who have always heeded our calls for partnership and shown great and uncommon civic engagement with our government.”
According to him, the Rice Mill in Imota will be commissioned by the end of the year.
“It also gives me pleasure to announce that our 32mtph Rice Mill in Imota will be commissioned this December. The largest of its kind in Sub-Sahara Africa, this Rice Mill, when completed will create about 350,000 direct and indirect jobs along the rice value chain,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu acknowledged that the state government has gotten the approval of the Federal Government for the establishment of the Badagry Deep Sea Port.
The Governor further said the Lekki Deep Sea Port will be completed before the end of 2022, saying the port has “three times the capacity of the Apapa Port and will give Lagos almost 50% of the shipping logistics volumes in West Africa, up from 22% today”.
