Joel Ajayi 

The Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Muhammed Bello Shehu,  OFR, has reaffirmed the commitment of his organisation to exploring new areas of revenue generation into the Federation Account to support the developmental efforts of President Tinubu led administration.

The Chairman stated this when he received the delegation from the National Space Research and Development Agency, (NASRDA) led by Dr.  Abayomi Taofik Alaga, Director Mission Planning and  Satellite Data Management, who was  in the Commission to enlighten Board Members and Management Staff on how to explore new revenue lines for the federation .

Represented by Engineer Muhammed Sanni Baba, Honourable member representing Bauchi state in the Commission, the Chairman disclosed that NASRDA was invited by the Commission to make a presentation on how to optimize possible areas of income generation into the Federation Account. This he said was in line with the core mandates of the Commission; to identify, mobilise, monitor, and recommend alternative sources of revenue into the Federation Account for sharing amongst the beneficiaries.

He said, “We welcome the delegation from NASRDA as they lead us to understand the details of the modus operandi of their organisation and enlighten us on how we can better achieve our mandate as the Agency  responsible for generating revenues for the three tiers of government in Nigeria”.

The Chairman also disclosed the decision of the Commission to extend the collaboration between NASRDA to NIGCOMSAT to leverage optimized satellite operations in order to enhance monitoring and evaluation of accruals into the Federation Account.

 A member of the delegation, Dr. Leke Oyewale, who is the Managing Director of Milky – Way Visuals, made an extensive presentation on the potential revenue streams that can be generated from space technology through the deployment of geospatial support . The NASRDA team explained various initiatives such as satellite development, space-based services, and commercialisation of space research that can generate revenue into the Federation Account.

Dr. Oyewale enunciated other revenue lines like bunker levies midstream operations, ocean meteorological services, satellite monitoring of pollution and recovery of spilled oil, cargo clearance platforms within the ports, automation of revenue lines, and the value addition to telecommunication companies.

He added that the aforementioned revenue lines covered the maritime, aviation, imagery, radio frequency analytics, and weather forecasting sectors.  They are potentially capable of generating over 45 billion dollars  per annum in the first two years, which could subsequently increase to 50 billion dollars  per annum if adequately harnessed. 

Other areas of national interest, according to the Milk-Way Visuals Limited representative, were the solid minerals and agricultural sectors, which could generate about 4.5 billion naira annually from mining operations in Nigeria and an annual income, from digital agriculture of N500 billion (five hundred billion naira).

Ambassador Ayuba Ngbako, Honourable Member representing the FCT in the Commission, who gave the  vote of thanks, appreciated the participants and commended the National Space Research and Development Agency and Milk-Way Visuals Limited for the enlightenment on new revenue lines into the Federation Account through the use of space technology.

He reiterated the Commission’s commitment to incorporating the instrumentality of satellite technology and encouraged Members of the Board and staff of the Commission to apply the knowledge gained from the presentation in their operations to boost the Nigerian economy.

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