Senate decries MDAs’ low remittances to federation account in 2024

Senate has expressed concern over low remittances of revenues generated in 2024 by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and some government-owned enterprises (GOEs) to the federation account. Sani Musa, chairman of the Joint Finance Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives, raised the concerns in Abuja on Monday at an interactive session on the MDAs’ revenue projections for 2025. The MDAs at the meeting included the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Others were the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC).
Mr Sani said the Senate was deeply worried about the widening disparity between the substantial revenues accruable to the MDAs and their consistently low remittances to the federation account. “This trend undermines the government’s capacity to fund critical infrastructure and social services, calling to question issues of inefficiency, mismanagement and possible revenue leakages,” he said. According to him, his committee’s mandate is to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency in the financial operations of the agencies. The senator said the committee would continue scrutinising the MDAs’ revenue projections, performance and adherence to statutory remittance obligations.
Mr Sani said this was to identify systematic doubts and recommend actionable results to reverse the troubling patterns. He sought the cooperation and understanding of all stakeholders at the interactive session, saying it was imperative that accurate data, comprehensive records and open data were presented for the benefit of Nigerians. “Let us approach these tasks with a shared commitment to building a stronger, more accountable fiscal framework for Nigeria. I call on all of us to please be very open on all those areas that we know, even if they are not presented to us,” he said. NAN