Members of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) are currently meeting, in Abuja, ahead of the 97th National Economic Council meeting scheduled for Thursday.
This was the first time the governors under the chairmanship of Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State had met after the decision by the Federal Government’s effort to recover the sum of N614 billion advanced to 35 states as budget support facility.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had made the disclosure at the last NEC meeting, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, in August.
The minister had at the Public Consultation Forum on the draft 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework in Abuja on September 10th said the dedications will begin in two weeks, which falls on September 27th.
The Federal Government gave the conditional budget support facility to the states through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2017.
It was to enable the states to meet their financial obligations to civil servants and pensioners.
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The money was provided at a nine per cent interest rate, with a grace period of two years.
Ahmed had said the repayment will be taken from the affected states’ allocations during the next Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting this month.
She said the refund is not going to be treated as revenue to be used to fund the 2020 budget.
According to her, “It was a loan that was advanced by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the states.”
She added that because the payment was made by the CBN, the recovery process is for the loans to be deducted from the FAAC allocations of the states and remitted back to the CBN.
Ahmed said the process will not require a consideration of the fiscal strategy paper (FSP) implementation, but to ensure the states stayed on the path of fiscal sustainability.
“This will not be a condition for the deduction. We will deduct direct at source and remit to the CBN,” she said.
Those in attendance at the meeting were Babatunde Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Seriake Dickson (Bayela), Abubakar Badaru, (Jigawa), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Emeka Ihedioha (Imo), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Aminu Masari (Katsina) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara).
The deputy governors in attendance were from Nasarawa and Kaduna states.