ABUJA 17 JUNE 2016-In pursuit of quick fixes, five states of the federation have completed processes to access Federal Government’s N90 billion budget support facility provided as a lifeline to rescuing the plunging economy of states.
The N90 billion would be disbursed in two tranches; an initial amount of N50 billion for three months and another N40 billion for nine months, to be shared among the 36 states at a 9 percent interest rate.
Kemi Adeosun, finance minister, had said the rationale behind the proposed facility, which she said was not a bailout, was to assist the states to balance their portfolio, providing about N1.3 billion for the first three months and N1.1 billion for the next nine months.
A comprehensive 22-point Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP) has also been agreed by the National Economic Council at its May meeting.
Briefing journalists after the National Economic Council meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel, alongside the deputy governor of Kaduna State, Bala Bantex, minister of trade and investments, Okechukwu Enelamah, and special adviser to the President on Social Interventions, Maryam Uwais, said Adeosun briefed the Council on the Federal Government’s N90 billion budget support loan facility for states at 9 percent interest rate.
“5 states have completed the process for borrowing from the budget support loan,” the governor said, adding that states were more interested in accessing solutions to their problem as Federal Government and states reconcile their accounts.
“It is just to make this available it is not compulsory, what is important is can people have access to a lifeline, you see what is happening today is not peculiar to Nigeria as a country, you know the impact of the fall in crude oil price that has actually gotten to oil producing countries like Nigeria.
“What we are looking at is what are the solutions, we must provide a lifeline for people to survive and to move on. I don’t think it is too much,” Udom said, adding that it was still too early to list states who had accessed it as more might either accept or decline.
“It doesn’t actually mean that states which will take this money does not have something accruable also from the federal government, pending the time we reconcile our book,the federal government may have some balances to settle the state government but in the meantime we accept this while we are awaiting for those reconciliations to be concluded.”
