Citizens decry missing impacts of Paris Club refund as FG opens up on details
Just as the Federal Government weekend revealed how it allocated the first tranche of N516.38bn reimbursement made to the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory from the Paris Club debt refund, citizens across the states have decried the way and manner many states appropriated the windfall.
According to experts, even though the money was purely states money, the federal government would have released the money only to states that were able to tie its use to specific projects that can impact on the citizenry.
A Development Economist, Dr. Ken Igboanugo told Business Hilights in a telephone interview that “The Federal Government committed a blunder in just releasing the funds to states without first asking states to present how they will to use the money for the interest of the citizens who are now at sea on how the fund was used”.
“If you go to many states and ask the citizens how they felt the impacts of the money, many will tell you that nothing has changed and the money is gone.
Business Hilights however, gathered that several states used their refund to pay of arrears of pension allowances, salaries and other recurrent expenses.
But in some states, the account of the refund has remained in deep controversies.
Giving the details on the schedule of reimbursement in Abuja, five states got the highest amounts of refund from the Federal Government.
The states are Rivers, which got N34.92bn; Delta, N27.6bn; Akwa Ibom, N25.98bn; Bayelsa, N24.89bn; and Kano, N21.7bn.
Analysis of the payment schedule showed that the five states got a total sum of N135.09bn, representing 26.1 per cent of the entire amount refunded by the Federal Government to all the states.
Lagos got N16.74bn; Katsina, N16.4bn; Kaduna, N15.44bn; Borno, N14.68bn; Jigawa, N14.2bn; Imo, N14.01bn; Niger, N14.42bn; Bauchi, N13.75bn; Sokoto, N12.88bn; and Osun, N12.62bn.
Others are Cross River, N12.15bn; Anambra, N12.24bn; Edo, N12.18bn; Kebbi, N11.95bn; Kogi, N11.05bn; Abia, N11.43bn; Ogun, N11.47bn; and Plateau, N11.28bn.
Similarly, Yobe State got N10.82bn; Zamfara, N10.88bn; Ebonyi, N9.01bn; Ekiti, N9.54bn; Enugu, N10.7bn; Gombe, N8.95bn; Nasarawa, N9.1bn; Oyo, N13.31bn; while Kwara got N10.24bn.
The rest are Adamawa, N10.25bn; Benue, N13.7bn; Ondo, N14.01bn; Taraba, N9.32bn; and the Federal Capital Territory, N1.36bn.
A statement signed by the Director of Information in the Finance ministry, Salisu Dambatta, said the payments were made upon the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari on November 21, 2016.
The statement noted that “This is in partial settlement of long standing claims by state governments relating to over-deduction from their Federation Account Allocation Committee allocations for external debt service arising between 1995 and 2002”.
It would be recalled that the deductions were in respect of the Paris Club, London Club and multilateral debts of the Federal Government and the states.
“While Nigeria reached a final agreement for debt relief with the Paris Club in October 2005, some states, according to the statement, had already been overcharged.
“The funds were released to state government as part of the wider efforts to stimulate the economy and were specifically designed to support states in meeting salary and other obligations, thereby alleviating the challenges faced by workers.
“The releases were conditional upon a minimum of 50 per cent being applied to the payment of workers’ salaries and pensions. The Federal Ministry of Finance is reviewing the impact of these releases on the level of arrears owed by state governments.
“A detailed report is being compiled for presentation to the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, as part of the process for approval for the release of any subsequent tranches” Danbatta disclosed.
