‘Revamp revenue, Reduce cost of governance’, expert advises FCTA secretariat
By Hudu Yakubu, Abuja
The newly created Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public Private Partnership Secretariat in the FCT Administration has been called to evolve new ways towards revamping internal generated revenue, and reducing costs of governance.
The call was made by an economist, Mr Aliyu Yusha’u who spoke on a telephone interview with Voice of Nigeria’s correspondent, Hudu Yakubu in Abuja.
Yusha’u said the Secretariat has a herculean task of galvanising all stakeholders to identify areas where sustainable investment could be made to scale up revenue generation.
He noted that the dwindling government revenue requires a high wired solution that can help in the sustenance of revenue generation for the administration to carry-out her responsibilities of providing services to the residents of FCT amidst increase in cost of governance.
Mr Yusha’u stated that the cost of governance is occasioned by the geometric increase in the influx of people from other parts of the country into the FCT thereby making it one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
According to him, the Secretariat has to prioritize the transportation system in FCT by working hard to attract investors that can make it efficient, profitable and up to standard.
He also explained that several opportunities for agricultural value chains that can be exploited exist for the Secretariat to take advantage of.
According to him, if the administration wants to reduce cost of governance, there was need to provide world class infrastructural development, with both working and non-working classes of residents that can leverage to build economy capacity.
” In my own opinion, unless we coordinate economic activities, there is no way we can proffer solutions to our budgetary deficiencies, so therefore the creation of that Secretariat is a welcome development.
“One of the basic challenges in the FCT is deficient transportation system, the residents, especially those at the suburb depends on transportation system.
” The new Secretariat has to find a way to make the transport system standard and look for investors both within and outside Nigeria”, he said.
Bilkisu Pai