FG moves to recover N614bn bailout fund from 35 states

Philip Clement

The Federal Government on Thursday said that a committee has been put in place to facilitate recovery of N614 billion given to 35 states on budget support.

This is as Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, has reiterated that the 2020 budget will be laid before the National Assembly in September.

Briefing newsmen after the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Ahmed, who presented an update to the council on the budget support facility, said that 35 states benefited from the facility and that each state is expected to pay back the equivalent of N175 billion.

She said, “Council agreed to constitute a committee of the Nigerian Governors Forum to meet with the minister of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria to finalize modalities for repayment.”

She said Council was briefed on preparations for the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the revenue generation challenges being faced by the government at the moment.

Ahmed explained that the non-oil has now experienced steady growth for the eighth successive times since the country pulled out of recession.

Ahmed also affirmed that the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) has been the basis for the Medium Term fiscal strategy.

“Macro-economic stability has been achieved with growth in end Q3, 2019 at 3.01 per cent; continued increase in Real GDP from 1.89 per cent in Q2, 2018 to 2.01 per cent in 2019; there has been significant growth in the non-oil sector.

“Other significant economic growth records include the fact that inflation has continually declined since 2017 from 18.72 per cent to 11.08 per cent in July 2019; the contribution of the non-oil sector to GDP has also increased 90.4per cent in Q1 2018 to 90.9 per cent in Q1 2019, while the unemployment rate stood at 20.1 per cent as at Q3 2018”, she added.

The minister also revealed that the draft 2020 – 2022 Medium Term Fiscal framework indicates that Nigeria faces significant medium-term fiscal challenges especially with respect to revenue generation.

She stated that the only way out is to improve revenue collections and expenditure management.

The meeting which was chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo also received reports on the Zero Oil plan of the federal a government which was presented by the governor of Jigawa State, Mohammed Badaru

The governor said the plan intends to add to add $150m to the country’s foreign reserve and also creative 500,000 direct and indirect jobs annually in the next 10yrs and lift 20m Nigerians out of poverty as part of the administration drive to shift away from oil revenues.

He said that plans are on the way to kick start implementation of the plan.

“Achievements of the Zero Oil Plan shows non- oil exports (excluding natural gas) have risen from U$1.17 billion in 2016 to US$3.16 billion in 2018 meaning that Strategic sectors identified in the Zero Oil Plan have seen growth. For instance,

cocoa exports have risen by $79.4 million since 2017, while sesame exports have also increased by $153 million since 2016 – an increase of more than 100% (source: International Trade Centre).

“The plan has identified the creation of five million jobs to date directly supported by no-oil exports, with efforts underway to increase this by 500,000 new jobs annually in line with SDG 8 – “Decent Work and Economic Growth” he added