Kwara Govt Approves Distribution Of Hybrid Cocoa Seedlings To Farmers, Calls For Upward Review Of Allocation

The Kwara State Governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has approved the distribution of hybrid cocoa seedlings to cocoa farmers across the State.

Yusuf Ganiyu Adebisi, Press secretary Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

The distribution exercise is part of the present administration’s efforts to mitigate the impact of Covid19 pandemic in agriculture sector in the State.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muritala Olarewaju in a statement enjoined the concerned individuals and Associations to be in attendance at the flag-off of the distribution exercise slated for Thursday September 10, 2020 at the Ministry’s Headquarters in Ilorin.

Those expected at the flag-off ceremony according to the Commissioner include:

Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN)
; Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN)
;H.O.D Agric of the 8 Cocoa producing LGAs
;Local Governments Directors of Personnel Management and at least 5 Farmers and other top government functionaries.

However, the State Government has called for upward review of the Federal Allocation coming to the State to boost her revenue for developmental projects.

The State Commissioner for Finance and Planning, Mrs. Oyeyemi Olasumbo, Florence, made the call during an Advocacy and Sensitization visit of the Team from Revenue Mobilization Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC) on Tuesday, in Ilorin, the State Capital.

According to a statement by Daibu Abubakar Press Secretary, MoF&P, Oyeyemi said the State Government has been working assiduously to ensure the State improves on the revenue sharing indices such as population, land mass, IGR and other factors to enable the State access more funds from the Federation Account so as to continue impacting positively on the lives of the people.

She added that the AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s administration is making conscious efforts to address the issues that are impeding the State from accessing more revenues from Federation Account.

She said the government has made giant strides across various sectors and commended the RMFAC team for their visit.

Earlier, Federal Commissioner for Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission Honourable Barrister Patrick Ngbebu said he and his team were happy to be in Kwara State noting that they came to enlighten the State officials on revenue sharing indices to enable the State access improved revenue from the Federation Account.

Ngbebu added that Kwara is blessed with the required criteria to access better revenue but there is more work to be done on data collections to corroborate the Government’s work on ground.

He expressed confident that the State will do better in the nearest future with the will and commitment of the stakeholders towards meeting the RMFAC sharing criteria for an improved revenue for Government.

Also, speaking at the meeting, the Chairperson Kwara State Internal Revenue Service, KWIRS Mrs. Folashade Omoniyi, said the State revenue Agency is doing a lot to increase the internally generated revenue in the State to strengthen its financial standing.

Mrs Omoniyi stressed that the Agency will work more on the indices required by RMFAC to enable the State to access more funds from the Federation Account.

Also, the Director, Allocation Department, RMFAC, Alh. Abdulfattah Rimgin, said the Federal Allocation is the commonwealth of every Nigerian and whatever accrued is shared in accordance with the law.

Rimgin added that the formulae for what share of the federation allocation goes to which state includes equality, population, land mass, IGR and Social development.