Pars Club
Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, has said the Federal Government is set to disburse another N649.4 billion to states as their balance of the Paris Club debts refunds.
Ahmed spoke on Thursday in Abuja during a quarterly press conference on the activities of the Finance Ministry.
She said the funds have been verified and refund will be made to the states in due course.
Ahmed said: “For the final phase of the Paris Club debt refunds, the total sum of N649.434 billion was verified by the Ministry as the outstanding balance to be refunded to the state governments.
“The payments made by the CBN as at March 2019, is N691.560billion. The increase in CBN payments partly arose from the exchange rate differential at the point of payment. Although, some states still have outstanding balances, which will be refunded, in due course.”
Ahmed also disclosed that a total of N603 billion has been saved through the Federal Governments initiative on Continuous Audit between 2016 to date.
Findings from the committee have led to the conviction of some ghost workers while others are currently undergoing trials.
The minister added: “The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) has saved the Federation N603.78billion from its inception in 2016 to date. Among this figure, is the savings of N8.30 billion during Q1 2019.
“As part of this administration’s zero tolerance on corruption, PICA’s findings on ghost workers has been acted on by convicting some civil servants and also there are some that are undergoing trial on the court while others are undergoing investigation by the EFCC.”
Others officials present at the media briefing include the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali; the Director-General, Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha; the Managing Director, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, and other officials of the ministry of finance.