The Federal Government on Thursday announced moves to recover the sum of N614 billion advanced to 35 states as budget support facility.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, made the disclosure while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the National Economic Council meeting, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa.
Vice President Osinbajo had disclosed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration has in the past three years intervened through loans, bailouts and Paris Club refunds to states to the tune of well over N1.1trillion.
The moves BusinessDay gathered followed fears of possible financial challenges that have seen government mop up all sources of revenue to finance projects, following fiscal pressures.
He had urged the governors at the retreat for the newly elected governors, to think outside the box, to boost their states Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), to enable them meet the demands of the N30,000 new minimum wage among others.
Zainab disclosed that “As at today, the budget support facility advanced by the Federal Government to the states, is a total sum of N614 billion and this is to 35 states.
“This means an equivalent is N175 billion per state. Council agreed. Council agreed to constitute a team of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to finalize modalities to commence repayment of these facilities to the Central Bank.”
Ahmed also gave the balances on two special accounts, the Stabilization Fund Accounts and Natural Resource Development Fund which has combined balance as at 20th August of $95,329,245 million.
She said: “The Stabilization Fund Account which has a balance of N21,729 billion and Natural Resource Development Fund which has N95,896 billion.”
She said the Adhoc Committee on Excess Crude and other special accounts of the federation requested for an extension to finalize its report and report to NEC meeting.
The NEC comprises state governors and relevant ministries of government and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Minister while also providing detailed reports on the Medium -Term Expenditure Framework and the Medium Term Strategy Paper, revealed that Nigeria’s macroeconomic environment has stabilized in recovering gradually.
“There has been eight (8) successive month of economic growth since emerging from recession, adding that “the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), remains the basis for the Medium Term fiscal strategy.
According to her, “Macro-economic stability has been achieved with growth in end Q3 2019 at 3.01%, even as Real GDP continues to increase from 1.89% in Q2018 to 2.01% in 2019.
The Minister said there has been significant growth in the non-oil sector, with contributions to GDP increasing from 90.4% in Q1 2018 to 90.9% in Q1 2019.
Zainab called for policies that will promote diversification and inclusive growth, as well as check unemployment, currently standing at 20.1% as at Q3 2018.
“Inflation has continually declined since 2017 from 18.72% to 11.08% in July 2019, draft 2020 – 2022 Medium Term Fiscal framework indicates that Nigeria faces significant medium-term fiscal challenges especially with respect to revenue generation.
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
