The federal government has disclosed that in the next few weeks, state governments will receive the last tranche of performance-based grants under the World Bank assisted States’ Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme for results, including the sum of N1 billion withheld by the Central Bank of Nigeria through naira exchange deficit.
That will bring to a close, the performance for results grant even though the technical assistance component will continue to be delivered by implementing agencies and partners till June, 2023 when the programme will finally wind down.
The SFTAS is a facility from the World Bank, which is provided in US Dollars. And in monetizing that US Dolla to Naira, the states claimed that there were some differentials that is still due to them and reconciliation was taken. And that differential is just N1 billion over the 36 states that are in the SFTAS programme. It will be recovered and shared to them.
Minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed made the disclosure at the just concluded Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja yesterday.
The minister said the continued support and commitment of stakeholders particularly the legislature and CSOs at state level are most needed in this last year of programme implementation to deepen on -going reforms and build structures that would entrench the ideals of SFTAS long after the payment of performance grants had ceased.
Sokoto State Governor and chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum Aminu Tambuwal expressed excitement over the development while highlighting the many benefits of the programme to the states.
