$750m World Bank’s Credit Support To States Ready
AMINA HUSSAINI, Abuja
As the nation faces economic crisis owing to the oil price plunge that is shrinking allocation, Nigeria has secured a $750 million grant from the World Bank as soft loans to States to help them meet up with their capital responsibilities.
The credit facility is open to all the states provided they satisfy the Disbursement Link Indicators or conditions attached to it.
Breakdown of the facility shows $700 million is for a soft loan while the remaining $50 million is to prepare them to achieve specified Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) to qualify for the grants.
This, another set of measures by the government to contain the impact of the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic that is ravishing countries across the globe, is however directed at state governments.
The first batch of the measures was announced Monday by the Central Bank of Nigeria in which it slashed interest rates down to 5 percent in addition to N50 billion stimuli for the real and the informal sector.
Zainab Ahmed, Finance Minister who spoke at the inauguration of a committee to monitor the disbursement of the World bank grants said the credit is to strengthen the desired fiscal reforms at the sub-national level
The Committee, National Steering Committee for the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme-for-Results according to the Minister will monitor how states expended the money on disbusement.
The grant is to be administered by a unit in he Home Finance office in the ministry which sets up the DLIs that are derived from the already established 22-Point Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP) by the Federal Government and the Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments which aims at strengthening States’ fiscal transparency, as well as improving revenue generation and management of expenditure.
The newly inaugurated committee will give strategic direction to the PCU and ensure the smooth implementation of the Programme.
Permanent Secretary, Special Duties of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr. Aliyu Ahmed stated that the Federal Government introduced the Budget Support Facility (BSF) in the form of soft loans to enable the States finance their capital budget.
The committee is chaired by Isa Dutse, with members include Auditor-General of the Federation, Director-General, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Director-General, Debt Management Office (DMO), Executive Secretary, Joint Tax Board, and the director-general of the Governors Forum amongst others
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