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Business News of Wednesday, 29 April 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

FG disburses 43.4bn to 24 states

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed

The Federal Government of Nigeria has disbursed the sum of N43,416,000,000.00 (USD120.6 million) as performance-based grants to 24 eligible States on the basis of the results achieved in 2018 under the performance-based grant component of the World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme-for-Results, which is wholly-financed with a loan amount of USD750 million from the International Development Association (IDA), a member of the World Bank Group.

?The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed who disclosed this in a statement signed by Mr Hassan Dodo, the Ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations yesterday in Abuja explained that the disbursement followed the participation of the 24 eligible States in the recent Annual Performance Assessment (APA) carried out by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF) as the Independent Verification Agent (IVA) in collaboration with a third-party firm, JK Consulting Limited and the SFTAS Programme Coordination Unit (PCU).

?Mrs Ahmed explained that the SFTAS Programme was established by the Federal Government of Nigeria with the concessional loan of USD750 million to support States through the provision of performance-based grants to States to the tune of $700 million, and technical assistance in the sum of $50 million to enhance their capacity to achieve the Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) i.e. the Programme results.

According to the statement, the DLIs are derived from the country’s 22-Point Fiscal Sustainability Plan and the 14 Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments aimed at strengthening fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability across all States of the Federation.

?Furthermore, the Minister gave highlights of: 1) the Eligibility Criteria (EC) that States have to meet in order to be eligible to receive any grants: the online publication of the approved annual budget and audited financial statement for the previous year; and 2) the DLIs that eligible States receive grants for achieving: improved financial reporting and budget reliability; increased openness and citizens’ engagement in the budget process; improved cash management and reduced revenue leakages through the implementation of State Treasury Single Account (TSA); strengthened Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) collection; biometric registration and Bank Verification Number (BVN) used to reduce payroll fraud.

Others are improved procurement practices for increased transparency and value for money; strengthened public debt management and fiscal responsibility framework; improved clearance/reduction of the stock of domestic expenditure arrears; and improved debt sustainability.

?She reiterated that the World Bank-assisted SFTAS Programme is principally to strengthen fiscal management at the State level so as to ensure effective mobilization and utilization of financial resources to the benefit of their citizens in a transparent, accountable and sustainable manner, thereby reducing fiscal risks and encouraging a common set of fiscal behaviours.

Mrs Ahmed observed that the SFTAS programme couldn’t have come at a better time than now given the dwindling government revenue occasioned by oil price volatility coupled with the current impact of COVID-19 which has further intensified the need for improved practices in fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability as enunciated in the SFTAS ideals.

She recalled that in 2018, the first year of the Programme, only 24 States met the Eligibility Criteria. She also disclosed that those States declared ineligible for 2018 failed to publish their annual budgets and audited financial statements online within the time frame as stipulated by the SFTAS Programme Operation Manual (POM).

The statement further pointed out that the 24 beneficiary States who met the eligibility criteria are Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe States.