Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, on Tuesday disclosed that state governors were not satisfied with the revised N162 million monthly repayment for the Federal Government’s budget support facility.
Briefing State House correspondents after the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Ahmed noted that despite a revised repayment plan of 30 years, the Governors were still complaining.
Therefore, she said the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning will discuss with the governors again with a view to getting the CBN to further review the conditions.
“The budget support facility was initially for a repayment period of 20 years; when we made the first deduction in September, the states had complained that the amount deducted from states which was N252 million was too high.
“Since then the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, which is the lender had revised the conditions to make the payment longer; so the new repayment period is 30 years; so this means that states will be paying monthly, N162 million.
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“But again today, the states still were not satisfied with the conditions.
“So, we are expecting that the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning will engage the governors again with a view to having the CBN further revise the conditions to reduce the monthly repayment burden,’’ she said.
The minister, responding to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU’s, threat to embark on strike over the presidential directive on Integrated Payroll and Personnel System, IPPIS, insisted that the directive was binding on all Federal Government’s staff.
According to her, since the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had directed that every staff of government’s agencies must be on IPPIS, she was bound to comply with the directive.
“So, that is what I do and we are going to do that; so, it is a pity if ASUU carries out this strike because what ASUU is saying now is that they should be treated differently from other staff of the government of Nigeria who are also on IPPIS.
“We will be engaging ASUU; we will be discussing with them; but at the end of the day, as far as I am concerned, my instruction is from the president,’’ explained.
Ahmed said that the ministry presented to NEC, the balances of the three special accounts as at Oct. 22.
According to her, the Excess Crude Account balance was 324.35 million dollars, for the Stablisation Fund Account, the balance as at Oct. 22 was N28. 5 billion while that of the Natural Resource Development Fund stood at N70.6 billion for the period in review.
