President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Monday, said that revenue generating agencies of government are capable of generating and remitting N3 trillion annually to the coffers of the Federal Government if efforts are made to cut down on wasteful spending.
Lawan made this known in an address delivered to declare open an interactive session “on the need to improve internally generated revenue of the Federal Government of Nigeria and Revenue Projections of the Agencies as Contained In the Appropriation Act 2022.”
The meeting was between the Senate Leadership and Members of the Committee on Finance and Revenue Generating Agencies of Government, according to a press statement.
He assured that the upper chamber would provide the needed support through legislation to ensure that revenue agencies perform to meet and surpass their targets.
Lawan said, “In 2022, the National Assembly assumed and rightly so, that our government-owned enterprises can generate up to N3 trillion if we are of the mindset that we can achieve that and, of course, ensure that we oversight to stall any possibility of unwarranted expenditures by agencies of government.
“But that does not mean in any way that it is going to be some kind of investigation on what you do, but an encouragement of what you need to do.
“In this meeting and subsequent ones, there should be no holds barred on discussions.
“Where an agency feels it is encumbered in any way from achieving its target, it should say so, so that we are able to prescribe the right solutions for it to perform.
“As a National Assembly, let me say that the Senate particularly will be stiff on generating more and more revenue.
“We will be rigid, we will continue to insist because we believe that this is one sure and guaranteed way of reducing our deficit and borrowing.”
Revenue agencies present at the interactive session include National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency, Nigerian Postal Service, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, and Nigeria Customs Service.
Others were the Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria Prisons Service, Maritime Academy of Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, and Abuja Geographic Information Systems.
Also present were the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Energy Commission of Nigerians, Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, Nigerian Export Import Bank, Nigerian Ports Authority, and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria.
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