W/Bank Funded SFTAS Disburses N351.65bn To States In 4 Years

World Bank Group financed States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme has witnessed the disbursement of N351.65 billion to different participating states of the federation from its inception in 2018 till date.

The N351.65 billion is the total sum disbursed out of the $1.5 billion that was released in two tranches the World Bank to engender fiscal transparency in state governments. National programme coordinator for SFTAS, Stephen Okon said the outstanding balance will be disbursed in October this year.

“Currently we are also in the process of making more disbursement for the 2020 APA and 2021 APA. The 2021 APA which we expect to disburse in October will be the last of this disbursement. Currently disbursement is ongoing for 2020 and 2019 APA,” Mr Okon said at the weekend at a workshop to sensitise civil society organisations about the programme.

The disbursements are made to states as grants for achievements made in respect of meeting what the programme implementers call disbursement link indicators.

In a bid to encourage a common set of fiscal behavior aimed at promoting fiscal transparency, accountability, and sustainability among the States of the Federation, the World Bank and the Federal Government developed a four-year (2018 – 2022) Programme for Results (PforR) facility worth $750 million tagged States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) PforR.

Meanwhile, the national coordinator has said the programme now in its fourth and final year of implementation “needs to be sustained if the full ideals are to be realized.”

As it stands, there is no indication that the federal government will extend the programme. But because of its impact on the states and public finance management, there is only the expectation that the federal government would consider exploring such an idea, moving forward.

The aims of the workshop are to deepen the understanding of CSOs on the major programme elements of the SFTAS Programme for results; enhance programme visibility and buy-in; create and sustain mutual lines of communication, contact and understanding between the Programme and the CSOs; enhance community mobilization for programme ideals’ sustainability; and engender ownership and participation by CSOs post-SFTAS.

Okon said no much challenge was encountered in the implementation of the programme. He attributed the huge success of the World Bank assisted programme support from all key stakeholders, especially the Nigerian Governor’s Forum, saying “the challenges were surmounted.” He said the minor challenge encountered was in isolated situations where some states are slow in filing-in their reports.

Filing questions from reporters on the sideline of the event that was held at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, SFTAS’ national coordinator said the programme has enhanced transparency in states. “Obviously yes,” Okon answered when asked if the scheme has entrenched transparency in public accounts management by states.

“You know the key aspects of transparency or where you mention transparency will be on matters of budget, matters of audited account of states. So, when you have that information in public domain then it means that there is obviously information for the society, for civil society organisations, for other members of the society to interrogate so there is better openness than before the programme was established,” he said.