STATES governments got a total of N2,230.190 billion (or N2.230 trillion) special intervention grants and refunds from the Federal Government to cushion biting effects of recession between June 2016 and December 2018.
The grants and refunds came in the form of loans to pay salaries and budget support funds which benefitted 35 states as well as a refund of excess deductions for payment of Paris Club debts.
Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed who stated this at a workshop on Process of Revenue Generation, Accounting and Reporting to Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) on Tuesday I Abuja urged participants not to concentrate on the template discuss dangers inherent in depending solely on oil as revenue source in the face of increasing downward trend in revenue generation.
The old reporting template became an issue of national concern in 2018 when FAAC meeting failed to hold on several occasions due to boycott by states who insisted that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was not reporting revenue accruals honestly.
Ahmed who was represented by a Permanent Secretary, Mr Mohammed Dikwa said accretions to federation account received an unexpected boost in 2018 due to a sudden upsurge in prices of crude.
While calling on revenue generating agencies to double their efforts toward surpassing their previous record and meeting their targets, the Minister noted that their poor performance, “coupled with the low oil price and the concern of Mr President for the wellbeing of the citizenry, necessitated the Federal Government to introduced series of palliative measures to support States to pay salaries and continue with the functions of governance.
“The president approved in early 2016 that states with outstanding salary payment should access N10 Billion each for a bailout and the nominal value of their ECA balance. Today, our record shows that thirty-five states (35) benefited from this gesture.
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“The president also directed CBN to liaise with commercial banks with the view of restructuring states’ overdrafts and other short-term loans granted to enable states to meet their short term needs.
“In the year 2016, the Federal Government introduced the budget support program for states under which a special purpose funding (SPF) was incorporated.
“A total of thirty-five (35) states participated in the program, while the actual releases commenced in June 2016.
“The sum of N1.39b was disbursed by the CBN to each of the 35 participating state government for the first three months. Subsequently, the sum of N1.111b was released to each state monthly for the remaining nine months which ended in May 2017.
“Members will recall that as a result of Paris-Club loans taken by Federal Government between 1992 and 1995, States owed FGN billions of naira that subsequent governments refused to pay.
“This has been accomplished in three tranches of N492.505b, N243.795b, and N649.434b respectively.”
Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris in his opening remarks said Buhari has approved a new performance management framework for government-owned enterprises (GOEs) with the objective of raising revenue generation and the associated remittances into government treasury.
In it, it has become mandatory for GOEs to use Single Treasury Account (TSA), make quarterly remittance of interim operating surplus instead of annually and that accounts of GOEs shall henceforth be audited within four months after the end of a financial year.
Also speaking in a goodwill message, Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Mr Mordecai Ladan disclosed that his agency recovered $200 million legacy debts and also generated N1.3 trillion revenue in 2018.
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