The Federal Government has approved a fresh budget support loan facility for 35 states across the country.....
Each of the states will get N800m, totaling N28bn to meet their salaries and other obligations.
The Minister of Budget and National
Planning, Udoma Udoma, disclosed this to State House Correspondents on
Thursday at the end of a meeting of the National Economic Council
presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja.
Udoma said the Minister of Finance, Mrs.
Kemi Adeosun; and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had been
directed to effect payments.
Udoma said the Accountant General of the
Federation reported to Council that approval had been received and CBN
had been directed to pay N800 million to each of the 35 states of the
Federation.
Only Lagos State is not taking the loan.
The minister said, “The Accountant
General reported to the council that approval has been received and CBN
has been directed to pay N800m to each of the 35 states of the
federation.
“Governors expressed appreciation to the
Federal Government for the restoration of the Budget Support Loan
Facility for July and August 2017.”
Adeosun also informed the council that the country recorded the highest amount of Value Added Tax in October with over N89bn.
She added that the target was N120bn monthly.
On monthly was assets and declaration
scheme, she said there was progress and the list of 500 Nigerians who
are believed to have under declared their assets had been obtained.
The scheme will offer amnesty to all tax defaulters.
The Executive Vice-Chairman of the
National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure was also said
to have briefed the council about an homegrown proposal to the
Independent National Electoral Commission for the replacement of the
card readers in the conduct of elections in the country.The proposal is a made-in-Nigeria “Solar-Powered Electronic Voting System” to effectively mitigate current electronic woes.
The same proposal which has already been presented to INEC is also expected to be presented to the National Assembly.
The balance in the Excess Crude Account
as of November 17 was put at $2,309,693,583.35, while the Stabilisation
Fund Account was put at N6,689,072,836.11.
The balance in the Natural Resources Development Fund stood at N100,314,169, 190.23 as of November 17, 2017.
The council also discussed the audit of revenue generating agencies.
The NEC was informed that some of the agencies granted some “questionable loans.”
Out of the 18 agencies that were
audited, the committee had completed work on 13 agencies; work is still
ongoing in two while three are not revenue generating.
The 13 agencies where work has been completed include NIMASA, NNPC, NPA, FIRS, NPDC and DPR.
The two outstanding are Nigeria Customs Service and NCC.
Osinbajo, however, directed the
committee to conclude its report under four weeks and report back to
council at the next meeting.
Udoma also briefed the council on the growth being experienced in the economy.
He said, “Signs of recovery had been
observed since Q3 2016 and the recovery consolidated in Q3 2017 with GDP
doubling to 1.40 per cent Non-oil GDP contracts in Q3 2017 by 0.76 per
cent after growing in Q1 R Q2 2017.
“While the Services sector is still in the negative, the Manufacturing Sector grows negative in Q3 2017 also.
“Due to high inflationary pressures
Household consumption expenditures remain constrained, though it appears
such pressure is easing. Headline inflation has declined since January
reflecting tight monetary policy. Food price increases have remained
persistent but slowing down.
“The total value of capital importation at the end 2017 of Q3 stood at $4.14bn (131.3 per cent growth year on year).”
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