Nigeria: RMFAC to review Salaries Of Political Officers

Amidst outrage by Nigerians against the large salary structure that public officials are placed on, the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Elias Mbam, said the commission has commenced procedures to review the remuneration.

Mbam who however did not specify the terms of the review said the review would be achieved this year, adding that it could either go up or down after the process.

Nigerians have demanded a drastic reduction in some of the allowances being collected by top government.

According to the RMFAC data the annual basic salary of political office holders are – minister, N2.02m; minister of state, N1.95m; Special Adviser, N1.94m; governor, N2.22m, deputy governor, N2.11m, and commissioner, N1.33m.

Other additional allowances given to these political officers include personal assistant, constituency, vehicle fuelling/maintenance, domestic staff, entertainment, recess, newspaper/periodicals and utilities.

Meanwhile the Debt Management Office(DMO) recently quoted the country’s debt to be $85.39  billion  as of September 30, 2019, as the government embarked on borrowings to bridge the revenue gap in the nation.

 in a bid to generate more revenue, the federal government also hiked the Value Added Tax(VAT)  to 7.5 per cent, and also introduced other measures in the recently passed Finance Act.