Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), Michael Yamson, has proposed a constitutional guarantee requiring Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to retain at least 75% of revenue they generate locally.
According to him, the proposal is intended to give assemblies greater financial independence and reduce their reliance on central government transfers.
Speaking on the final day of the National Dialogue on Decentralization and Responsive Governance, Mr. Yamson explained that MMDAs currently retain 100% of their IGF but argued that this arrangement is based on government policy, rather than a constitutional guarantee.
According to him, the proposed 75% constitutional threshold would therefore protect a substantial share of local revenue from being amended by future governments.
“Some of you may already be asking, and you are right to ask it: MMDAs keep all their internally generated funds today, so why propose 75%? Let me be precise about what this guarantee is. It is not a ceiling. Full IGF retention continues exactly as it stands today.
“It is a floor and a constitutional one. The 100% they enjoy now is a matter of policy and administrative convention, real but revocable by whichever administration decides otherwise tomorrow. I am proposing that we stop relying on convention and write a guarantee into our constitution as this compact widens what counts as local revenue,” he stressed.
He also proposed a district own-revenue mobilisation compact under which every assembly would be required to achieve at least 15% annual growth in locally generated revenue as a condition for full access to its grant allocation.
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