Senate on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to ensure remittance of one per cent from the Federation Account into the coffers of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) from September in line with extant laws .
Senate’s call for the remittance to NASENI, followed submissions of its Executive Vice Chairman , Prof. Mohammed Haruna before the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning on 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
Haruna, in his submissions, had decried that the agency had never received one per cent remittance from the federation account as provided for by the 2004 National Assembly Act.
He said the Act stipulated that NASENI should draw from the federation account, one per cent revenue accruing to the Federal Treasury beginning from year 2000, but noted that the agency had never received any such remittance.
However, Chairman of the joint committee Sen. Solomon Adeola ( APC Lagos West ) told the Accountant General of the Federation ( AGF) Ahmed Idris , to from September, commence the disbursement of the stated one per cent.
” The Act setting up NASENI was the Act of the National Assembly and the Accountant General of the Federation could not be allowed to flout the law.
” Therefore, since the AGF is here, please ensure that the executive starts implementation of the law from September this year because NASENI has potential to develop and industrialise the Nigerian economy through the core mandates given to it by the extant laws” , he said .(NAN)
