Anxiety as FG tells governors to return N614b loan support
The Federal Government has asked governors of the 35 states to repay the N614 billion they received under the National Budget Support Loan Facility. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, announced this while speaking to journalists at the State House on Thursday, August 22, 2019.
According to Ahmed, each of the states would return N17.5 billion. Some governors are uncomfortable with this information given the fact that most of them cannot meet up with the N30,000 minimum wage. However, the Finance Minister explained that upon receiving a briefing on the matter, the National Economic Council (NEC) agreed to set up a team comprising the Governors’ Forum and her ministry to meet with the Central Bank of Nigeria in order to work out the repayment modalities. The Honourable Minister of Finance briefed NEC on the progress of how the FG had made a total of over N614bn available to 35 states, being N17.5bn each, she said. The Council agreed to constitute a team from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to meet with the CBN and the Ministry of Finance to finalise modalities for commencement of repayment.
2020 budget
The minister disclosed that the 2020 budget would be sent to the National Assembly by the end of September 2019. She explained that NEC had been briefed on preparations for the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper and the revenue generation current challenges being faced by the government. Senate President Ahmad Lawan had said that the 2020 budget would be passed before this Christmas break.
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