On Monday, Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has urged state governments to reduce unnecessary overhead costs, increase Internally Generated Revenue and embrace fiscal discipline for proper management of available resources.
Ahmed has made the call in Kaduna at the 2018 Conference of the National Council on Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED).
She said: “It is on record that due to persistent domestic fall in oil revenue over the past years, it became extremely difficult, if not impossible, for us to meet duly budgeted obligations.
“This happened because of the age-long over reliance on oil, even though Nigeria is abundantly endowed with multiple resources, which provide varied sources of revenue.
“There are stupendous potentials for diversification of source of revenue we can reflect soberly on our national endowments and make conscious efforts to exploit and manage them effectively.
“On the Federal Government part, we will continue to strive to ensure that all federation revenues are accounted for in the most transparent manner and managed efficiently to deliver on the dividends of democracy to the citizenry.
“Let me acknowledge and commend the wisdom behind the development of the new revenue reporting template that was engineered by the Commissioners of Finance.
“It is imperative to mention that its implementation will be one of the key reforms in revenue remittances into the Federation Account.
“We must get back to agriculture, develop our solid minerals sector, further streamline and reinforce our tax collection systems, block all avenues for revenue leakages, continue to strengthen our borders to stem smuggling and abhor all forms of corruption.
“We have to cultivate a new culture of efficient resource management and genuine paradigm shifts to enable us utilise the untapped resources in a more efficient manner.
“These I believe we can do, notwithstanding the mistakes of our past, I am confident that this conference will rekindle our hope and embolden us to take practical steps towards unlocking the potentials in the non-oil sector in our respective states.”
