Buhari’s Administration Has Disbursed Over N5trn To State Governors, Says Finance Minister

Over N5trn has been disbursed by President Muhammadu Buhari to state governments through the Federation Account Allocation Committee.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed who gave the figure stated that the amount was disbursed from 2015 when the President took over office.

Advertisement

Ahmed spoke on Thursday at the presentation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration scorecard (2015-2023).

She noted that the country continues to disburse funds to the three tiers of government from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.

The Minister said the huge amount disbursed through FAAC to state governors is an indication that Nigeria is not broke.

He said, “We continue to generate revenue on a monthly basis and these revenues are distributed at the Federation Account Allocation Committee.

Advertisement

“Again, to continue with the tradition of transparency, we actually disclose how much is distributed monthly to the various tiers of government.”

Ahmed further said oil production is increasing, stressing that as at October 2022, it soared to 1.4 million barrels per day.

She also said N1.7trn was released for this year’s capital projects as of September 2022.

The minister pointed out that at 33 per cent debt to GDP ratio, Nigeria’s debt is still the lowest when placed beside countries with equal comparatives.

“We are a population of 200 million people, and we have a lot of demands on government, both state and federal, to provide service.

Advertisement

“We have to keep working to find out how we can incentivize and enhance the business environment so that small business enterprises can thrive. They should be the largest employer of labour and should be the largest contributors to the GDP,” she added.

Ahmed noted that there are no plans to restructure the debt, adding that Nigeria does not have to restructure because it has a debt strategy that could be followed closely.

She said, “We make provision in our budgets for debt servicing. It is taken as a first-line charge so we have not defaulted on any loan, external or local.

“So we are comfortable in terms of our ability to pay our debts, so we are not going for any debt relief and we are not going for any debt restructuring.”

Leave a comment

Advertisement