The federal government, through the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the National Space Research and Development Agency, (NASRDA) has said it is exploring new areas of revenue generation into the federation account to support the developmental efforts of the present administration.
RMAFC chairman Muhammed Bello Shehu made the disclosure yesterday when he received a delegation from NASRDA led by the director, mission planning and satellite data management, Dr Abayomi Taofik Alaga, who was in the commission to enlighten the commission’s management on how to explore new revenue lines for the federation.
A member of the delegation, managing director of Milky – Way Visuals, Dr. Leke Oyewale said potential revenue streams that can be generated from space technology through the deployment of geospatial support, according to a statement that was issued by the spokeswoman for RMAFC, Maryam Yusuf.
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.
Earlier, the RMAFC boss who was represented by the commissioner representing Bauchi state in the commission, Muhammed Baba, disclosed that NASRDA was invited by the commission to make a presentation on how to optimise 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 optimised satellite operations in order to enhance monitoring and evaluation of accruals into the Federation Account.
Member representing the FCT in the commission, Ambassador Ayuba Ngbako, 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 management of the commission to apply the knowledge gained from the presentation in their operations to boost the Nigerian economy.