The federal government on Friday, said that nine oil-producing states in Nigeria have received 13 per cent derivation totalling N625.43 billion, subsidy and SURE-P refunds from the Federation Account in the last two years.
This is according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who listed the states that received the refunds dating from 1999 to 2021 as Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.
According to Shehu, Abia State received N1.1billion, Akwa-Ibom – N15bn; Bayelsa – N1.6 billion; Cross River – 432 million; Delta – N14.8 billion; Edo – N2.2 billion; Imo – N2.9billion; Ondo – N3.7billion and Rivers – N12.8 billion.
He noted that the states were paid in eight instalments between October 2, 2021, and January 11, 2022, while the ninth to 12th instalments are still outstanding.
Quoting a data obtained from the Federation Account Department, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the presidential spokesman said a total of N477.2 billion was released to the nine states as a refund of the 13 per cent derivation fund on withdrawal from Excess Crude Account (ECA), without deducting derivation from 2004 to 2019, leaving an outstanding balance of N287.04 billion.
He also said the states also got N64.8 billion as a refund of the 13 per cent derivation fund on deductions made by Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited without payment of derivation to Oil Producing states from 1999 to December.
Furthermore, he said that the benefitting states still have an outstanding balance of N860.59 billion from the refunds, which he said was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.