Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, on Thursday, announced plans to resume deductions of the N614bn Budget Support facility to the 35 states from next month.
The deductions were suspended for one year to enable the states stabilize their finances, following the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown imposed across the country and across the globe with the attendant effect on oil production and sale at the international markets.
Mrs. Ahmed made the announcement at the 155th meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), with the governors appealing for a further extension, following which Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, as chairman called for an all-parties meeting on the matter soon. The follow-up meeting was called after Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), “explained the technical challenges involved should there be a further postponement of the deductions,” according to a statement by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Office of the Vice President.
Prof. Osinbajo is to chair the meeting, to be attended by Mrs. Ahmed, and Emefiele, while the state governors would be represented by Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, “where the issue would be properly considered and a decision reached.”
The Federal Government started distributing the facility in June 2017.
Also at the NEC meeting, and against the backdrop of the controversies that have trailed the insistence by Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State that Nigeria’s printed N60bn to augment distribution in the face of dwindling revenues, NEC affirmed that no money was printed to shore up allocation distributed by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) for the month of March.
The council reached the conclusion after reviewing presentations from the Finance Minister; the CBN Governor; and the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), through its chairman and Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
According to the statement by Akande, Mrs. Ahmed and Emefiele, had told Council, comprising the 36 state governors, as well as Ministers and chief executives of strategic Ministries, Department and Agencies, that the allegation of money printing “to augment allocation was outrightly false.”
The council, while affirming that “no money was printed to shore up allocation for the month of March, (also) supported the conclusion and NEC affirmed same as the highest constitutional body tasked with economic affairs in the country.
“While the Finance Minister categorically debunked that Naira was printed to back up allocation last month, the CBN Governor fully supported the position of the minister, and the Chairman of NGF also noted that he knew no such thing happened at all,” Akande stressed.
