The Federal Government on Thursday said it has begun moves to recover the sum of N614 billion advanced to 35 states as budget support facility.
This was made known by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
She made the disclosure at the press briefing at the end of the over three hours of the National Economic Council meeting, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa.
The Presidency, through Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, had earlier disclosed the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had in the past three years, intervened through loans, bailouts and Paris Club refunds to states to the tune of well over N1.1trillion.
The minister said on Thursday 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.”
The Minister further 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.”
Added that 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.
