The Association of Local Governments (ALGON) announced yesterday that the 774 local governments are required to establish dedicated accounts with the CBN. This initiative is aimed at facilitating the direct distribution of their allocations from the Federation Account.
Bello Lawal Yandaki, the National President, emphasized that establishing the account is essential for putting the Supreme Court’s decision regarding direct fund allocations to the councils into action.
He mentioned that the central bank is awaiting guidance from the Federal Government regarding the opening of the accounts.
“The CBN is presently awaiting directives from the Federal Government to open local government accounts for the respective states, which can be done between 24 and 48 hours for each.
“I am a member of the sub-committee that was set up to trash out contentious grey areas, and we have already met relevant stakeholders, including labour unions, local government chairmen, NULGE, and so on.
“There’s a general agreement that the commencement of direct federal revenue allocations to LGs will be this January.
“Hopefully, we are just rounding off meetings and making submissions to the Federal Government for implantation and there’s no set timeline,” he said.
~imranmudhz